Ouran's Lady Host
by YukinaHikaHime
Summary: All she wanted was somewhere to study. Somewhere to get her head down and get on with the... probably 5th beginning of her life. How does Japanese born, English raised scholarship student Hollie, handle life as a misunderstood teen in Ouran Academy.
1. Stumbling on the Wrong Door

Authors Notes: Hello readers! I've never written an OHSC story before, so please bare in mind it's my first. It's completely different to what I'm used to writing. Anyways, the storyline is pretty similar to the manga and anime, with my own little changes and bits I added to change the story to make slightly more different. I don't own Ouran (unfortunately), it's simply a fan-made fiction to show my appreciation. Also please cut me some slack with the Japanese endings to names like '-chan', '-sama' etc. I'm still learning it, and enjoying it so if it is wrong please correct me. Enough of my rabbling, I hope you enjoy it!

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Clutching to my note pad, loose papers, pencil case and glasses case, I wandered the corridors like a lost puppy. It was shortly after I wandered around the north hall on the top floor that I stopped to flatten the creases on my short black plaited skirt my old school intended all girls should wear. Checking my warm navy blue jumper with the school logo was still tucking away my white shirt; I continued to walk down the halls until I reached the end, where only one door stood. I couldn't help but feel nervous, as I made the knot of my blue tie, striped with red and gold, bigger as well loose, I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down again.

I read the sign above the door. 'Third Music Room' I haven't seen the other two, but I guess it doesn't matter right now. I placed a hand on the brass doorknob. I couldn't quite understand it, but I had a feeling that my life was going to take an unexpected turn. Opening the door, I slid inside with a short and weak sigh. What I really didn't expect as I opened the door was a group of six extremely handsome guys waiting there, centred exactly in the middle of the room, each with their own pose.

"Welcome," they all greeted.

I didn't know what to say, but only adjusted my glasses again as I felt them slip down my nose, also falling back on the door closing in behind me. I wasn't sure who was the best looking, but it was something I was sure most of the girls debated regularly. It was also debatable about which of the six guys was most surprised by my entrance.

"It's that new girl." Two identical boys with light blond, almost ginger coloured hair and orange eyes chorused as they each eyed me up and down, obviously noticing my skirt. "She probably won't be much fun."

"Don't be so prejudiced. She's our guest, and must be treated like one," the tall, light blond haired boy interrupted, who sat in the middle of the group on a chair that almost looked like a throne.

"Must be the scholarship student. Hollie Donaldson I think her name is," one of the two dark haired boys said. What I noticed was distinctive was the thin rimmed glasses he wore, while the other boy, who was also taller, didn't wear glasses at all.

Although I was too shocked to speak, clutching even tighter to my books and stationary than I was before, I couldn't help but slightly frown at the idea of them talking about me as if I wasn't actually here. Gaining my breath back, I balanced myself upright away from the door, but the little confidence I had made me instinctively look at me feet, hidden under the black tights and black Mary-Jane pumps I was wearing.

It was as I heard my name being called, I instantly looked up again, the long locks of straight brunette hair flying over my shoulder as I set my views on the group of boys, looking for the one who had grabbed my attention.

"Yes, you must be the commoner they let in. You need nerve to survive in a school like this, especially as a scholarship student," the same dark haired, glasses wearing boy added.

I wasn't sure if they knew much about me, of my true background, or just the rumours I expected to be spread. Not that it matters; they can create whatever lifestyle they want for me. I know I'll always be the lowly commoner to them, not that it bothers me.

"Indeed," I politely answered with a sincere tone, but I couldn't help but bite my lip.

I knew I had to entertain them; it's only for a little while. Mum was likely to move us again anyway. It's not like they're my friends, so what damage would it do? It's not my normal thing, but life's life, and I have to take what life throws at me.

'Hollie, I know you don't like the idea of hiding yourself or lying to people, but please, for the sake of our family, lay low,' Mum's voice ran through my head.

I wasn't sure why, but that sudden thought was the small amount of strength I needed to bear with the awkwardness of the situation. Pulling myself together, I tried to look more eager to see what was going on, despite the frustration and confusion I was currently in.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, isn't she in your class?" the light blond haired boy asked.

"Yea, but she doesn't talk to anyone. She's always studying, drawing or humming to herself, or at least that's what it looks like, we don't really take notice," the two boys answered.

'Mum, I know you were trying your best to make me feel better, but it's freaking hard when you're treated like some kind of animal in a zoo,' I thought stubbornly.

"Well, then. We'll have to make use of our little guest," the blond haired boy chuckled. I don't if it was just my imagination, but there was an evil look in his charming purple eyes that made my heart skip a bit, and a wave of nausea as it felt like the air in my lungs had suddenly escaped.

I tried calling out for help as the four boys that had originally been talking surrounded me. The other two stood watching as I caught a glimpse of the smallest boys smile, while the other, the tall, non-glasses wearing dark haired boy watched with an expressionless but content look on his face. I tried to wriggle and break free, but was soon seized against my will, but tried to avoid being pulled away from the wall by holding onto the door knob, or anything else I could clutch onto with one hand, holding onto the rest of my things desperately with the other.

I never thought I'd be abducted by a group of handsome guys. I never intended to either, despite most teenage girls fantasies. Although I was being captured, I certainly wasn't happy.

"What do you want from me?" I grumbled as I felt myself being forced to sit on the chair the tall light blond haired boy was originally sat on when I first entered.

"You see, I just came up with an idea, revolving completely around you. It could make you very popular if you do as you're told," the blond haired boy sniggered, which made me feel sick.

"I don't care about popularity," I stated bluntly, setting my books and pencil case on my lap before childishly folding my arms across my stomach.

"You're a silly girl. School isn't just about studying. You need friends as well!" the smallest boy with light blond hair added with a cute smile.

"I never said I didn't want friends. You don't need to be popular to have friends," I argued. "Besides, my friends are all elsewhere. They're who's important to me."

"You can make new friends though!" the smaller boy added with an almost sorrowful look in his undeniably cute brown eyes.

"The friends I have are the ones I need… But…" I stuttered, in a failed attempt in defence.

I couldn't help but silence myself. I don't know who these people are, so I shouldn't tell them anything about myself. They already know my name, that's enough for them.

"You're probably unaware of this, but we are the Ouran Host Club. We're here to please girls with too much time on their hands, because we handsome guys, equally have too much time on our hands, so we wish to make their day enjoyable," the blond haired boy continued. "By the way, my name is Tamaki."

"If you please girls, what do you want from me?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, like I mentioned, I came up with a new idea. You're right that we only entertain girls, but seeing you come by, you've given me a whole new exclusive addition to the club," Tamaki grinned leaning forwards, to a point where our faces were only just a few centimetres apart. "I insist that you act as our only female host, to entertain any boys that happen to come by. You'll make friends with boys, and any girls who want to talk to you."

"What?" I shouted, jumping out of the seat, grabbing my things as they slipped off my lap. "You can't be serious? This is my first day here. I only stumbled here by accident, I got captured by you guys, and now you _insist_ that I entertain guys in the same way that you lot entertain girls?"

"Of course."

I looked at my feet, hugging my possessions tighter. This was all too weird. It was too hard to bear. Mum always said not to please guys if it's not sincere. I agree with her not because she said it, but because my morals don't allow it. I could only sigh. It was no good; I didn't have any reason not to do it otherwise.

"Why me?" I questioned. "I'm not the social type, I'd rather study and get good grades than sit around making guys fall head over heels over me. Not that I know how to."

"You asked a very good question. I think that if we remove the glasses, you'll appear more approachable," Tamaki answered, reaching forward and removing my glasses from my face. I couldn't help but blush slightly. I never usually let people take my glasses, or come any where near my face.

It was moments after my precious glasses were away from my face I could feel the strain and started squinting. My eyes promptly adjusted, but Tamaki's face was so blurry, compared to the two identical boys stood either side behind him, who were crystal clear in comparison.

"Besides, a cute little face like yours should be shared with the world. Your glasses may give you a smart look, but you shouldn't be afraid to take them off." Tamaki added with a slight pink in his cheeks.

"As much as I appreciate your compliments, I have no fears of taking them off. I simply feel more comfortable wearing my glasses. Despite that I should only wear them when focusing on things very close to my face," I agreed with a small sigh of defeat. "May I have my glasses back please?"

Taking my glasses back that sat on Tamaki's outstretched palm, I took the glasses case from the pile in my arms and opened it as I hid my specs in their little treasure chest. Well, that's what I like to think of them as.

"Thank you…" I stuttered, placing the black-labelled case on top of the pile that was resting heavily on the palm of my hand. "Oh… I appreciate your offer to accept me into your club, but I'm still learning my way round and meeting people, so it's too soon for me to think about any commitments yet."

"You should join! You'll meet new people, and learning the layout of the school is easy. Besides, you're a scholarship student, you must be really smart so you'll learn it easy-peasy." The short blond haired boy interrupted with the same cute and excited smile on his gentle looking face. I was sure I could see little flowers, like daisies popping up around his face every time he spoke to me. "Oh! My name's Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but you can call me Honey."

"Nice to meet you." I curtsied with a smile.

I wasn't sure what I had done wrong, but Tamaki and the two identical boys, who I had guessed must be brothers, suddenly pounced at me. Chanting 'cute, so cute!' over and over, I decided I was only getting a taste of what they were like. I then realised I had dropped all my things on the floor when they jumped at me, which made me struggle and try to escape from their clutches. I'm used to being pounced at, but certain things of my possessions don't need to be seen.

"Oh no!!!" I screamed, finally breaking free, I started picking up the mess that happened to be everything I was carrying with me.

"You should get a bag to put it all in," Tamaki chuckled as he knelt down to help me.

"I do. But I left it in my homeroom, and took out what I needed and started learning my way around before ending up here." I explained while picking up my glasses case and checking my specs were still intact. Luckily they were fine.

"Uhh… Hollie?" Tamaki asked. "Are you a half-blood?"

"Yes," I stated, looking at the object in his hands. "…! Is that my ID?"

"Yea, I picked it up and couldn't help but notice what was on it," Tamaki grinned, his eyes obviously scanning the photo of me when I was about ten years old.

"Well, since you've looked at it. I'll explain…" I sighed. "You see. I'm half Japanese and half English. I was born here in Japan while my parents were on holiday, about three weeks before I was due to be born. I was born early, and was recorded as a Japanese born child, which technically I am, but my parents are English."

Silence fell upon the room, which made me feel more than a bit awkward. I was going to explain more, but there was no point. Well, I don't see a point. I didn't like the awkwardness either, not that it's anything new for me to be the cause of it.

"I don't understand, it says here you live in England," Tamaki said breaking the silence, while pointing at a particular part of my ID.

"Oh… I now live here in Japan. I'm getting my ID updated this weekend, as well as my passport and such. I've lived in England most of my life though," I explained.

"You speak very good Japanese, they don't teach it in schools in Britain do they?" the dark haired glasses wearing boy asked.

"No they don't. My parents paid for a tutor, because I was aware of the plans to move here. Unlike some of the British population, I don't expect others to speak my language for me, especially when I'm not in my own country," I explained, feeling a rush of irritation as I reminded myself of the unforgivable memories of selfish people at my old school who were disrespectful to an outraging point. I hated their complaints and selfishness so much.

"You're a commoner who paid for a tutor?" Tamaki questioned.

"Uhh yes," I lied.

Another awkward silence fell on the group, but this time it felt more ridiculous a situation than the last. Although it was still fairly quiet, the dark haired boy with the thin-rimmed glasses then sighed and took my hand as I got back on my feet.

"The name's Kyoya Ootori," he stated.

I simply nodded, a strange feeling of embarrassment and shock making me force an awkward smile. I wasn't aware until then how small I was compared to the whole group, excluding Mitsukuni. When I last measured myself, I was 154cm tall, which I think is about 5"2, and even at that height, Mitsukuni wasn't much shorter than me, although you could easily tell I was taller than him. I noticed a moment after snapping out of my thoughts that Tamaki had stood himself up, putting my ID on the top of my pile of important possessions.

"Well, if you're going to join the group we better introduce the rest of the group, not forgetting getting the right uniform for you," Tamaki added.

"We're the Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru," the two boys introduced themselves with an intimidating, symmetrical smile as they posed.

"This is Morinozuka Takashi, but we call him Mori," Honey grinned, poking the tall boys arm before, out of nowhere, jumping on his back. "He doesn't talk much."

"You probably wouldn't believe it, but they're both the same age," Tamaki added glancing at me shortly.

I tried not to act surprised, but I couldn't help but secretly give the benefit of the doubt. Despite my doubt, I decided to believe him anyway. I can't say it's impossible to believe. I'm fifteen and I'm quite short compared to most girls my age.

"Come on, let's get you a proper uniform," Tamaki stated.

With that, the entire Host Club dragged me down the corridor to the changing rooms, where unused dresses and uniforms were hanging on a rack, waiting for an owner. After being given two identical cream dresses that were similar sizes, I was pushed behind a curtain, being ordered to change.

I did so, taking my skirt and tights off, then my jumper, then undoing my tie, then taking my shirt off once undoing the buttons. I folded them up neatly, then trying to squeeze myself into the smaller dress. Although it just fit, it was too tight, to a point where I had to take it off just to breath. I tried the second, which was also a no-go. This time it was too big, which was as big a dilemma as the smaller one. I changed back into my original uniform and left the small changing area.

"Neither fit. One's too small and the other is too big," I sighed, putting them neatly back on the rack.

"Uhh… you'll have to wear the guys uniform then," Tamaki decided.

"That's alright. I have a white shirt, so that minus' one thing…" I replied with a pathetic smile, my optimism failing as I realised how stupid an attempt it was.

"Here, go change again. We'll wait," Tamaki ordered as he passed me a pair of black trousers, a lilac blazer, and a black tie that had a purple stripe vertically down the centre.

As requested, or better said, demanded, I changed once again. This time it was a more comfortable fit, and one I liked as well. Dresses… not my thing at all. Pulling a hair black band off my wrist, I loosely tied my hair into a low side ponytail over my right shoulder. I only then noticed how long my hair really was.

I walked through the curtain, the boys stood waiting in a bored manner. I stood in silence with my clothes and other items resting in my arms against my chest. It took a moment for them to notice, but when they did, it was red faces all round. I don't know why they were acting the way they were, but it can't be helped.

"Do I look strange or something?" I questioned.

"No, you look really good Hollie!" Honey-senpai grinned, grabbing my hand before spinning me round on the spot. "It suits you! You're like a real part of the school with our uniform!"

"Oh. Thank you," I shyly replied, hiding my face behind my books.

"Ahem, now that your uniform is sorted, we can head back to the club room. Customers will be coming soon," Tamaki interrupted, still blushing slightly.

"Wait! I know I can't argue my way out of not being a part of your club, but what point is it with me being there today? I mean no one knows I'm a part of this," I added quickly.

"Just come anyway, people will likely run off and spread the news," Tamaki justified.

'Damn, I thought I had escaped…' I thought.

With a displeased look on my face, we all went back to the clubroom. I constantly reminded myself not to give too much of myself away. Mum strictly told me that certain things could not be said in school. I promised not to say so I won't.

Once back in the clubroom, I leaned myself on one of the pillars that divided the room up into its separate sections. As expected, guests came, but I didn't expect it to be in large numbers as I had seen. I simply watched, watching as word of my presence started to spread, some girls stayed with the boy they were designated to, and some ran off with fits of giggles to spread the news. I hadn't realised until about ten minutes later that Kyouya-senpai was stood next to me, writing on a pad of paper.

"I don't think this plan will work…" I sighed.

"I beg to differ," Kyouya added.

"What makes you think that?" I questioned.

"Well, with our audience always based around girls, the idea of allowing boys to partake should spice interest, and more supporters for the club. Not to forget the additional benefits," Kyouya explained with a serious grin. "I think, even if you're the only girl in the group, you can pull it off if you get your act together."

'Cold… he's so cold…' I thought with a half disappointed to look.

Although there was a slight hint of encouragement, the harsh insult still made more of an impact. Instead of answering, I continued to watch the separate groups. What I noticed was the different ways they would charm each girl. Tamaki would just dish out compliments, and become quite close to the girl he praised, as well as poses that I figured, to a certain audience, must be irresistible. Mori-senpai on the other hand, was constantly silent while Honey-senpai released his little aura of cuteness. The twins disturbed me, the way they used twincest to thrill their audience. I could only sigh. I didn't have a clue how I was going to handle this.

'If I only I could to talk to people easily,' I cursed to myself as I tightened my tiny hands into a fist.

"You'll be fine," Kyouya-senpai whispered from the surface of his notepad.

I could only look up at him both out of shock and disbelief. He was just so cold then, and now he's giving me a clear encouragement. I don't know if it was possible to believe him, being the usually socially paranoid person I am. Maybe… just maybe… Yes. I'll definitely try. But one thing is for sure; my life is definitely changing.

"What're you thinking about?" Kyouya asked from beneath his book.

"Nothing," I replied with a smile.


	2. Taking a Huge Step in Unknown Territory

Author's Notes: Here's chapter 2. Thanks for the reviews for chapter 1. It was really encouraging. I wrote this chapter in advance before originally posting the first chapter so this is quick because I was speed typing big time. I hope you like it. Enjoy!

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My first day at Ouran Academy has ended. What an experience it was. Meeting the socially famous Ouran Host Club was certainly something I didn't expect. Nor did I want it either. It can't be helped now, because Tamaki, the so-called King of the Host Club, has forced me into being the first ever-female host to charm the male clients that will soon attend at the clubroom at the very end of the north hall on the top floor.

I have to be grateful though. It's thanks to them I have a proper school uniform now, and judging by the condition of the fabric, it's really expensive! I did tell them all at the end of after school's club meeting how grateful I was for the uniform, but I think they were too busy chatting about this and that to notice my existence, despite that I was the one being forced to be there. Personally it looked like Tamaki-senpai had been trying not to look at me, but I don't know why. Kyouya-senpai, much to my surprise, was very talkative with me. It was quite reassuring for me, despite his cold evil smile and stabbing eyes that could probably scare a young child. Even though we socialised for a while, it was mostly about my grades and what I was most successful at. To my displeasure, there were a lot of insults, as he seemed more competitive than interested. As far as I care, it was probably a chance to learn about the newest member. He looks like the manager type, so it's probably safe to assume he handles that kind of thing. His surname, Ootori seems familiar to me, but I'm not sure why, it'll probably come to me some day.

Fortunately I didn't have any clients on my first day, so other than creating a first impression with Kyoya-senpai, I watched to see how the other members handled charming their guests. I think I'm better off asking for advice, rather than sitting on the side lines, but I'll have to see how things go, maybe they'll release me from my iron chains and prison cell.

--

I jumped off the bus, my red and white lily shoulder bag hanging over my legs as I packed my book away, then lunging it over my shoulder as I continued walking through the front gates. I took the map I was given yesterday by my homeroom teacher out of my blazer pocket, reading it thoroughly as I recognised the north hall where I had explored yesterday. I had circled the entire room in red triangles, to look like devil horns, to symbolise the third music room where the Host Club attends meetings and holds activities. At first, when I first drew the horns I was really peeved, but now, it entertains me as a silly joke. It's strange how my moods change so suddenly. Last night I had successfully memorised the south hall of the campus, but it still seems a blur to me. Either way I was happy with my current success, but also annoyed about my imprisonment by a bunch of gorgeous but equally bigheaded guys.

"Hollie!" A voice called out.

I turned around, searching for anyone who looked familiar to me. Not many people do, as I had logically calculated. I was shocked when I did see one person I did recognise, and that person of all people.

"Tamaki-senpai!" I shouted out, waving as he ran up towards me.

'Wow the morning's must be helping me,' I thought with a smile, but also slightly curious why waking up at 6am every morning was helping me, instead of destroying me from the inside and out.

"Good morning," Tamaki happily greeted me with a first thing in the morning smile. "Still learning from the map I see?"

"Yea. I find it easiest to learn by studying, but exploring is so much more fun. Especially when you're already doing something else and it happens by itself," I answered with a smile. It was only after I said it that I realised I was already rambling about unnecessary things, like usual.

"Would you like me to take you to your homeroom?" Tamaki asked, with a sincere but almost mischievous grin.

"Oh! You really don't have to!" I answered hastily; folding up the map and tucking it between my dark purple English book and dark green biology book in my bag.

"It would be my pleasure," Tamaki replied with a 'gentleman's' smile.

'Should I trust him? He had a suspicious look a minute ago… I better let him escort me. I might hurt his feelings if I don't. I really don't want to be on bad terms with anyone in the club,' I thought with a content look.

It was just like that. An older male student who had somehow successfully talked me into joining his club was guiding me to my homeroom. I'll admit that Tamaki's not a bad person, despite having to join his club against my will. I remember now, when he _insisted_ that I joined his group, there was a look that seemed like concern, or was it greed? I don't know.

'Maybe things will get better,' I thought with a growing smile as I admired the maintenance of the school.

It truly is a beautiful school. The outside grounds look magnificent. It's as if someone with true taste designed it all. The sparkling spray of water from the fountains in the morning always made me smile, like when I'd walked past them when changing lessons yesterday, and when I first visited for the entry exam and to inspect the campus with Mum less than two months ago.

Walking past a large window, I could see the fountain by the front gates that looked undeniably amazing from up here on the first floor, which if I had read my map correctly, was the floor my homeroom was on.

'Note to self: Must draw something like this some day,' I thought with a satisfied grin.

Hikaru and Kaoru did mention they saw me drawing yesterday; it must have been during break. I have a habit to draw things that look unique, beautiful or any treasured moments that spice my interest. I don't always know why I do so, but it's something I've done since a pencil was put in my hand.

"Here's your homeroom. Have a good day," Tamaki said, which startled me slightly, causing him to chuckle. "In a world of your own huh?"

"Oh, yea, sort of. I don't normally go around school with anyone so it's a change," I explained with an embarrassed smile.

"Not even at your old school in England?"

"No. My friends walked slower than me, so I often walked off ahead without even realising because I was thinking about something that either bothered me or caught my interest." I explained.

"You're quite a complex person aren't you?"

"Indeed. That's what most people expect of me, and I'm proud to be that way. A lot of my complexity increases certain aspects towards my work, which can be both a burden and a pleasure for myself and others around me," I explained, adjusting my glasses by shifting the rims that sit on my nose.

"How is it a burden?" Tamaki questioned, he seemed really content in what I had said, which made me blush slightly. I was so used to being ignored so it really took me by surprise.

"I'm afraid it's difficult to explain, but if it ever becomes a situation in the future, I'll let you know. Oh… Thank you for showing me to my homeroom," I smiled, adjusting the bag straps as it chafed and ached my shoulders, slowly making my back tingle with an irritating strain.

"It wasn't a problem at all," Tamaki chuckled before leaving me to go into my homeroom. He turned around at the end of the corridor and looked at me. "Remember, club activities after school."

He then walked off. I don't know why, but I found realised I was smiling. Maybe it was because Tamaki was treating me like a human being, not like the animal I apparently seemed to be yesterday. After I knew for certain that he was gone, I opened the door to my homeroom and found my seat where I had sat myself yesterday, which I didn't realise before, but now realised was between Hikaru and Kaoru in the back row near the window.

Taking my pad of specially ordered art paper out of my bag, I started to draw the photographic memory I had taken in less than a few minutes ago of the fountain I had found myself admiring. Taking out my pencil case, I took out my sketching pencils and started work on my newest piece of work.

About ten minutes into my work the bell went, and when I looked up to find students in my class walking in to be in earlier than our teacher, I was shocked by the faces staring down at me. I closed my book and put my pencils away in my bag as I tried desperately to put the book away with them.

"Hikaru? Kaoru?" I questioned as I looked between the two of them.

"Ah, you remember our names," they stated bluntly in chorus.

"Of course," I replied, I could tell by my nervousness that I had a serious look on my face. After seeing their behaviour yesterday, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of them. It's not natural for brothers to be in each other's arms as romantically as they show themselves off to be. "I may have only met you both yesterday, but it doesn't mean I'd forget who you are."

"Hmm, all right then. Tama-senpai asked us to keep an eye on you. Don't ask why cause we don't know," they added in chorus.

I wasn't sure whether to reply or not, but one thing was for sure. I wasn't going to escape as easily as I had hoped. It also seems certain that Tamaki-senpai is trying to keep me under control. Does he think I'll run away?

"Does he realise I'm not going to be like a wild animal and run off? I have no intentions of escaping, even if I had no choice but to join your group." I questioned with a smug grin, leaning my elbows on the desk as I rest my head on the palms of my hands.

"Probably. He's quite protective of his members though," they both answered, again, in chorus, almost creating a symmetrical image.

I was going to ask another question, but our homeroom teacher came in, so obviously I couldn't. The day passed quickly, with break spent in homeroom working on my latest piece, and lunch also spent in homeroom as well, where I managed my thoughts, while consuming the lunch of sandwiches and fruit I had prepared for myself. Although Hikaru and Kaoru were in homeroom at lunch as well, I noticed they were both together but separated from everyone else around them. It seems they are all the time, when they're not hosting.

The end of the day seemed to come quickly. I was leaving my English class with a somewhat uneven smile. It's fair to blame the fact that people kept looking at me strangely throughout the entire lesson, glancing back between the teacher and I. Ah well, I don't care what it was about, I just need to handle a short afternoon of hosting and then I can go home.

I opened the brass doorknob, at the end of the north hall of the third music room. Everyone seemed content with something and didn't seem to notice me until about a couple of minutes after closing the door behind myself.

"Hollie-chan!" Honey-senpai cheered as he rubbed his eyes and ran full speed towards me, then grabbing my hand and spinning me on the spot, similar to yesterday. I think he's created a nickname for me already… "I just woke up and now you're here. Lucky me!"

I smiled, blushing slightly at the sweet compliment. I couldn't help but question why he was asleep though. He does look like a young child, so maybe he naps like a young child does? It's logical, despite his age. Many people have comfort blankets in their late teens, not that they'll admit it.

"You might have guests today! Everyone knows about it!" Honey-senpai continued with an adorable grin, I was definitely sure this time there was small poppies or some other flower blooming around his face. It would suit him.

I continued to smile, but couldn't help but feel nervous. I've only just remembered the names of the host club members, now I need to meet new people and remember their names as well. I'll just have to try.

"Come and sit with me and Mori!" Honey-senpai grinned, tugging me by my sleeve as he readjusted his grip and sat me down between him and Mori-senpai on the three-seat-sofa. "Do you want some cake Hollie?"

"No but thank you for the offer," I excused, smiling at the understanding honey blond and chocolate-eyed member.

"Oh! Then why not hold onto Usa-chan!"

Taking the pink and black-eyed bunny he had in his arms, I sat the plush doll on my knee, which seemed to entertain my excited elder. I have to admit, although personally, stuffed animals and dolls do not thrill me, it was definitely a cute toy. I couldn't help myself and analyse the animal, it looked handmade, how the stitching wasn't perfect, but discrete to any passer-by. But indeed, it was a wonderfully made toy.

Conversations started to take place as mixed groups of boys and girls started to gather at the small area in the corner of the room, not far from the window. I felt almost fortunate to be sat on a sofa surrounded by three others; in the centre was a coffee table where I was given responsibility to pour hot drinks, which seemed to please everyone who was sat with us.

I wasn't quite aware of how good looking a lot of the guys were that came to be designated to me. Even though I was nervous, and always growing increasingly shy, I somehow managed to keep a good conversation going, but constantly being interrupted by Tamaki-senpai who would run over and chant how cute he thought my smile was, which made me loose rhythm of the conversation. What made it slightly easier to bear was that it became more like a group discussion with Honey-senpai, his female clients and my male customers who had enough curiosity to investigate about the exclusive activity that I had to dish out. Although Mori was sat with us, he wouldn't utter a word.

"So, Hollie-chan. What are your hobbies?" Honey-senpai asked, whilst being watched by the mixed gender of customers who glanced between us both.

"Hmm… It's hard to create a list, but my favourite hobby of all is singing, along with art, acting, and writing fiction. Not forgetting sports like netball and basketball. I enjoy trying out a wide variety of different activities, whether its extreme sports, down to the performing arts, I like to have a go." I explained, taking my glasses off and coping with the strain of adjusting to the change in my vision.

"Do you bake?" one of the girls asked with an expectant look on her face as she grinned at Honey before looking curiously back at me.

"Oh definitely. I'm not a very good cook, but baking cakes and other deserts is fun because when my family tries it, they seem to enjoy it a lot because it's fresh," I continued to explain with a growing smile and slight giggle. I finally felt more comfortable. Maybe it's because it's a casual conversation, not an endless attempt at winning a customer's heart.

"Hollie-chan, may I taste your baking when you next cook?" Honey-senpai beamed.

"Of course. If you'd like, I can cook one tonight and bring it tomorrow," I stated with an even larger smile. Although I hated the idea of my imprisonment, already it felt more pleasurable to be appreciated for my hobbies and being taken an interest in.

"That would be great!" Honey-senpai chuckled as he picked up a fork and pulled a chunk of strawberry cheesecake from the slice Mori-senpai had cut for him.

I continued to smile, which didn't take long for another inevitable attack from Tamaki as I felt myself being strangled and tried to break free.

"Tama-senpai! Let go of me!" I shouted, wriggling in a desperate attempt at escape the suffocating grip of his tangling arms. Frantically looking around I noticed Mori-senpai had turned around with Honey to look at another of Senpai's attempts to praise me. "Mori-senpai! Help!"

It was sudden but it happened, I was relieved, but also shocked to be suddenly lifted away from Tamaki's grip and was hanging over Mori's shoulder looking at Honey. It was safe to assume I was being carried in the typical fireman's lift. I was just as shocked as Tamaki at Mori's method of heroism.

"Mori-senpai… that was drastic, do you have to go that far?" Tamaki complained. I was sure he was tugging at the end of my trousers, and luckily for me I was wearing a belt.

"I was asked for help, so I helped," Mori answered in an almost emotionless monotone.

"Thank you," I answered in a suffocated whisper, sighing as I tried to push my stomach away from Mori's shoulder in an easier attempt to breath properly.

"Come to Daddy!" Tamaki chuckled as he ran around the other side of Mori to face me.

"I don't need two fathers," I groaned as I stared into his excited purple eyes.

Being placed safely onto my feet, I took a moment to balance myself properly, but unexpectedly the Hitachiin twins surrounded me. Judging by their appearance, they had purposely ruffled up their hair and were looking down on me with mischievous grins. An audience started to gather, and naturally I assumed this was a common activity for the clients to take part in, it didn't seem like anything else.

"Lets play the 'Which One is Hikaru-kun Game?'" they both grinned as they continued to snigger amongst themselves.

Sighing, I thought to myself about my decision.

"The one on my right is Kaoru and the one on the left is Hikaru," I grinned with a slight giggle as I waited for their response.

"Wrong!" they shouted with beaming smiles.

"Actually, no. I'm right. You may look similar, but you do have differences that allows me to tell you both apart," I grinned as I felt mischievously content.

Amongst the clapping and questioning of my success, I couldn't help but smile at the gob smacked look on the twins' faces. Never before had I felt so good about being right about something.

'To be honest, despite being right about their game, it's not that big a deal is it?' I thought to myself. 'Either way, they shouldn't feel bummed about being told apart.'

With that, I left the group so the ragingly excited audience could question the two twins, who admitted their hopeless defeat. Sitting myself down on a chair at a small table, I poured myself a cup of tea and reflected to myself. Closing my eyes I allowed my thoughts to unravel so I could contemplate.

"You're certainly becoming popular among the members of the host club," a girl's voice said, which seemed to be close.

I opened my eyes to find a girl with long dark hair sitting on the chair across the table. She was leaning her chin into the palms of her hands and was looking almost creepily at me.

"Seems so," I answered with a deep monotonic tone.

"You know, Tama-sama keeps looking at you. Just bear in mind he's only keeping an eye out for the club's little piggy until he knows enough about your background," the girl chuckled.

"You're probably right," I sarcastically replied.

"Don't think you're special though. Just because he's got his eye on you, it doesn't mean you mean anything to him. You're still only a commoner," she continued, tapping the side of her cheek with her index finger in what seemed to be a 4-by-4 beat.

'Hmm, I see. I get it now,' I thought to myself with a chuffed grin.

"To be blunt. I think you're jealous that…" I tried to say, but unexpectedly felt myself being flung backwards.

It was all sudden, but as soon as I came to and rubbed the back of my head from the aching where I must have landed on it, I could hear her shouting some random crap about me becoming violent, and ill-mannered as well her pathetic attempts to call other people to help her. What I also didn't expect was the Hitachiin twins' to pour dripping cups of water over her head, causing her to uproar more complaints. Clambering to my feet, I was then confronted by the girl, but was somewhat defended as Tamaki stood between us.

"It's inevitable to say you're a beautiful girl, but only on the outside. I hate to say it, but can you never come back? We can't have customers mistreating members like that," Tamaki scolded.

She simply squealed at her banishment and ran out of the clubroom screaming how stupid she thinks the club is. Which kind of contradicts her purpose of being there in the first place, making me laugh secretly in my head.

"We get that kind of customer every now and then," Hikaru added, breaking the silence.

I could only watch him, both out of shock and complete confusion. Nervously I rubbed the back of my head, and then pulled the sleeve of my right arm up to find it my elbow was bruised. Damn girl. Pulling the sleeve down again, I continued to watch with a sigh.

"Right then. How to handle this? My best customer's gone," Tamaki muttered to himself. "Hollie, I was going to negotiate with you. If I gave you a quota of 100 customers to assist and please, you'd be free to leave the club, but since my prized customer is no longer welcome, I'll double it to 200 customers."

"Eh…" I sighed. "Fine, I accept the consequences. Please excuse me, I need to get some fresh air."

Without uttering a word, I grabbed my bag and left the clubroom, escaping outdoors in less than a minute. Walking slowly along the path alongside in what seemed like a daze, around the end of the north hall building, I sat myself on a bench that overlooked a beautiful flowerbed of colourful tulips and other assorted breeds.

"This is all too much…" I sighed as I felt my shoulders slouch slightly in a false sense of relief.

"Been a long day for you huh?" a voice said.

Turning to look in the direction of the familiar voice, I was surprised to notice Kaoru running towards me. I guess it was better than Tamaki, especially because of this 'debt' he's burdened me with.

"Yea…" I groaned as he sat himself next to me.

"First everyone thought you looked a lot like our English teacher, Tono starts harassing you, Mori lifting you, our little guessing game, the princess backstabbing you, and now you're indebted because of her actions. Sounds like a lot to me," Kaoru chuckled.

"I only wanted somewhere quiet to study yesterday… I never planned on being caught up in any clubs, not yet. Tama-senpai was right to punish me like that though; I taunted her to a point where she retaliated worse each time I answered to her. It was wrong of me to do that, I didn't even mean to," I explained with a long deep sigh.

"I know it seems harsh that Tono forced you into the group, but he's got high hopes for you. He won't admit it but he does," Kaoru continued to explain with a reassuring smile. "You were clever to tell Hikaru and I apart."

"Thanks…" I stated in a soft whisper looking at my feet.

"Come on, we better get back to the club room. There's only twenty minutes left but Tamaki will appreciate you being there. Don't take it personally."

"Thanks for finding me. I feel a lot better for talking to someone about it," I weakly smiled.

We took our time walking back up to the clubroom, but even though it was a peaceful walk, and we had a peaceful conversation, I still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with everything that had happened.

"Hollie. Don't worry about it."


	3. A Trick I'll Never Forget

Author's Notes: Alright the 3rd chapter. This is intentionally short, although I hoped it would be slightly longer. But that's not a problem. Thank you for the reviews, I'm very grateful. I was asked about why I spelt Honey as it is, well there's the intentional explanation in the chapter so I'm sorry if you weren't happy with the mistake, but it's meant to be there, I promise! I'm trying my hardest to update this story among my others as frequently as possible, but I'm also busy with coursework so please bare with me. I am trying very, very hard. I hope you see some of the random humour in my chapters. I can easily understand if you don't, my sense of humour isn't exactly easy to follow. I haven't done as strong a grammar check on this chapter as I do with the others, but I'm sure it's not too bad though. Anyway, enough rabbling! I'm sure you'd rather read my chapter, so here it is!

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Weeks have passed since September, and it's gone fast. I gave Honey-senpai the cake I promised him. Luckily he enjoyed each bite, or at least so he said. I didn't realise I was as good a baker as Honey said I was. It took about twenty minutes before he would stop dishing out compliments. It was very sweet of him to be so honest though. Lately I've noticed people write his name as 'Hunny', and when I asked him if I could spell it as 'Honey' he asked me why. At first I couldn't help but giggle, explaining that Honey in English is a sweet topping for many treats and it describes his looks very well because of his hair. When I told him this, he seemed more than happy for me to spell it that way.

After working out the difference Hikaru and Kaoru correctly way back then, they've been more than willing to talk to me, they often try to involve me with this and that. It's too hard a choice to choose which one was the most amusing for me. For example they often argue who will work with me in which lessons and for what tasks. It's rather sweet I suppose.

--

I continued to run through the quiet campus, escaping the clutches of my ever too chatty English teacher in hope of avoiding being late for the Host Club activities. Luckily I was successful and arrived just on time without my head being bitten off by an over powerful Tamaki. At least, that's how I perceive him.

Sitting down quietly at a table, I put my bag by my feet as I leaned my head in my hands. While my mind started to let out the thoughts that interested me throughout the day, there was a strange feeling as I was being watched. Glancing around I realised it was Hikaru and Kaoru who were the ones watching. In fact they were sat on the windowsill leaning against each other as they kept their sights locked on me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked as I tilted my head, a slight dense feeling making me feel slightly stupid about myself. "Is something on my face?"

"Ah, no," the twins chuckled, rising out of their seated position and walking over to me. "You seem lost in thought though."

"Oh. I just can't help but think of my friends in England. I miss them very much, even the guys are on my mind at times. Some of them were such good friends of mine…" I explained.

"Oh. They must very important to you to be on your mind. Wait? You said guys on your mind?" they both stuttered, then leaning on the table less than a metre away from me. "I bet at least one of them made you fall in love eh?"

"No. I have never been in love. It's fair to say I'm picky about guys. But being friends with guys is so much easier because there's no romance. Not that I'm looking for it," I shrugged. I didn't intend for this kind of conversation at all.

"Come on, you must have felt slightly warm around someone?" Kaoru teased, caressing his index finger along my chin.

"Nope," I stated, sternly grabbing his wrist with a firm grip and moving his hand away from my face.

'No one touches my face,' I thought glumly.

I don't if it was what I said, or what I did, but they both grinned at each other and chuckled. With short gasp, I could feel nausea of intimidation and regret overwhelming me.

"What are you thinking?" I asked, groaning as I tilted my head again.

"Do you realise how cute you look when you do all those different looks like that?" they both chorused in chuckle. They then looked at each other and grunted. "Why are you saying my lines?"

I just sat and watched in disbelief as they began to bicker amongst each other, throwing childish insults back and forth, growing more and more aggressive and annoyed with each come back. Personally, I don't think they could argue for very long.

I was wrong.

Sitting quietly on the windowsill, about half an hour later after the argument began, I looked out the window above the bench where Kaoru and I had had our little conversation a few weeks back. The flowers were beginning to wither now, compared the vibrant petals on that day.

I didn't expect the presence of a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I also didn't expect to find Takashi to be the one standing above me.

"Takashi?" I questioned in a soft whisper, which was blocked out even more by the shouting of the childish twins.

"This is a real one," he stated, his eyes constantly looking out the window, not once diverted to looking me in the face.

"A real fight?" I asked, adjusting the knot in my tie nervously as I quickly looked at the twins throwing Usa-chan and a brown bear I hadn't seen before back and forth at each other. I could only assume that's what he meant. "I hope this doesn't continue in lessons…"

I wasn't as lucky as I hoped. It was the day after it all started, we were in English and at the start of the lesson we were allowed to choose new seats, so we could sit with out friends. I forgot to mention, but apparently they were so annoyed with their synchronisation that they decided to change their hair colours. Pink and light blue… interesting.

I was sat down between the two bickerers, reading my notes for Romeo and Juliet, annotating as I read the script. Like always, Hikaru and Kaoru came in with their clashing hair colours and sat either side. Hikaru was the first to sit down, and as Kaoru sat himself down, Hikaru arrogantly pulled his chair away from him. As expected he fell on the floor, which caused another uproar. Sinking my head in my hands, I sighed as it took about five minutes of girly squeals and an annoyed teacher to stop them so we could begin the lesson. Another incident was during lunch, they kept ordering the same meals, and getting very fed up, to a point they started feeding me their food. Luckily none of it was meat, but I think they remembered from a few days ago about my vegetarian diet I told them about.

--

The end of the day had finally and painfully come. Their argument still hadn't ceased to an end. It was suffocating to watch. Sluggishly dragging my feet around the campus, I felt like there was a huge increase in my sensitive stress levels. Man, if they got much worse, I was going to snap.

Closing the door behind myself, yet again, the twins were arguing still. Even during club activities. But like I had dreaded, it was worse than I expected. And there was a lot more I didn't expect them to add to their endless fight.

"Hikaru! You're such a pervert, eying Hollie up when ever she walks past. That's sick!" Kaoru shouted shielding himself behind one of the pillars after he shouted his thoughts.

I don't know what word describes how I felt at that moment, but they didn't seem to be aware of my presence as they continued shouting this and that still involving me. Maybe gob smacked is just a fraction of the feeling. No, not quite, but it's a start.

"If you guys are going to fight, then don't include me!" I shouted, tightening my fingers into my palms to make the tightest fist I ever made. "In fact, do you realise how much you're affecting the rest of us with your fight?"

They simply looked at each other with the same disgusted looks and then waltzed over towards me and stood either side of me, leaning over opposite shoulder, their faces close to mine.

"Why should we stop? It's him that's the cause of it," they both chorused, then getting wound up again at each other's synchronised response.

Once again, much to my displeasure they shouted at each other, and it was more deafening as they shouted through my head, more literal than I ever intended to say it. I remember meeting Umehito Nekozawa of the Black Magic Club, another thing I forgot to mention. He kind of scared me at first, with his dark cape and sickeningly dark green hair. He mentioned about his wares of cursed items that enchants a curse on the desired person. Unfortunately, Hikaru took his advice and nearly scared me half to death when he revealed a Beelzenef item. I hadn't realised it until then, but Tamaki suddenly freaked out and hid behind the rest of the host club at the sight of the wooden doll.

"Kaoru, I'm going to write your name on this doll, so you are cursed for the rest of your days!" Hikaru cursed as he pulled a pen out of his pocket.

Scaring me even more, I knew it was now I did something about this. With my tensed up fist I punched the wooden doll out of his hands, realising I was too late as Hikaru finished writing on the back of the enchanted doll. Gasping, I grabbed both boys by their oddly coloured hair and pulled their heads to my shoulders, breathing heavily as I held them with a firm grip.

"That's enough! You have been arguing for more than enough. I will not put up with it. Apologise to each now!" I shouted, pulling their faces in front of each other before releasing them from my out raged grip.

"Why should we?" They both asked, standing up straight and crossing their arms across their chests.

"Now," I groaned. "If not, I won't let you visit my house, ever."

"You're saying, if we make up, we get to visit your house?" they both questioned, their quering look changing to a grin as the exchanged looks.

"Uhh…" I muttered almost voiclessly.

"Fine, it's over," they chuckled, holding each other tightly.

'Eh?' I thought. Looking at the doll lying face up on the floor about six feet away, I walked over and picked up the doll. On the back, in Japanese text, the word 'fail' was inscribed in black ink, and on top the English translation mocking me.

Slouching instantly as my thoughts processed, I dropped the doll as my hands somehow opened up out of the shock.

"No way!!!" I screamed. "I've been HAD!!! Mum was right!!!"

"What do you mean your Mum was right?" Honey-senpai asked as he walked over and loomed under my shoulder facing me.

"My initals, are H.A.D, and my Mum said on my last birthday that my initials would bring me bad luck, and if you say as a word, it makes HAD. Mum was only kidding when she said it but she was still right!" I explained, my eyes widening as my thoughts traced back to my 15th birthday after my friends and I went bowling and had come home for a huge meal.

"We get to go to Hollie's house now!" the twins sang, holding hands as they span in circles repeating themselves.

"You cows…" I cursed in a mumble.

"This was all just a fake fight… but why?" Honey asked.

"We didn't mention it earlier, but we were bored," the twins grinned.

With a sigh I eyed the two twins with my famous evil look, or so it was called back on my fair Somerset soil.


	4. Casting and Presenting

Authors Notes: Hello everyone! I quickly wrote this chapter so I haven't proof read it much. What I can say is that I enjoyed writing it! I hope you enjoy reading it!!!

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November 10th, three days before my 16th birthday, it's fair to say that I'm quite excited. The past fifteen have gone fast! Mum won't stop talking about it. My Step-Dad won't stop going on about how old he thinks I am now I'm nearly an adult. Opening the door to the host club, I slipped inside, realising Tamaki-senpai was the only one here besides me.

"Am I early?" I questioned, startling the distracted king of the famous Host Club.

"Ah yea, Hikaru and Kaoru need to run some errands before they come, and the others are still coming," Tamaki-senpai replied with a smile, quickly looking away from me.

"Ok," I answered in a whisper.

Taking my bag off my back, and pulling my phone out my pocket, I unlocked it and felt slightly disappointed about having no texts in my inbox. I placed my phone on the closest table, along with my bag underneath leaning on the leg of one of the chairs, my mind suddenly hitting an idea.

"Oh! Please excuse me! I need to get my art book," I shouted in shock bursting out the room and racing down the hall.

It took a few minutes, but I finally reached the art room, where Hikaru and Kaoru sat in their usual spots, with a paintbrush in their hands. I closed the door, causing them to turn around and notice me. Smiling briefly, I skipped over to our class' box and dug out my art book, tidily putting away the others I had taken out. Making my leave, I silently left smiling in return as the twins looked amusingly confused about my short and spontaneous appearance.

Back at the host club, I walked calmly over to the table where I left my phone. I felt somewhat excited when my phone started flashing. Picking up the radioactive pocket device, I unlocked my phone again to discover a text.

'I should change the settings on my phone, it's so annoying that it locks itself so often,' I thought.

"Having a good few last days as a fifteen year old sweetie? Make them last, in three days you'll be sixteen and John's not going to leave you alone about it! Lots of love, Mum," the text read as I quietly read it aloud to myself.

"That step-father of mine never leaves me alone about anything, what difference does it make?" I teased to myself.

Sending a quick reply, I laughed to myself as I text my witty response, locking my phone and hiding it in my bag between my two pencil cases.

"Is it a meeting today or activities?" I asked, turning around to look at Tamaki-senpai, who was once again distracted. I repeated myself, and he jumped out of his chair when he finally noticed.

"Eh, meeting," Tamaki mumbled in reply as he blushed with embarrassment.

"Now you're the one who's in their own world," I teased, giggling as he continued to look away.

Without a reply, Tamaki just stared. I wasn't sure whether he was unimpressed or back in his world. Cheekily, I walked up closer to the King, about a metre away. With a giggle, I waved my hand in front of his face. I jumped back melodramatically as his eyes that originally looked behind me, looked straight up at me. Smugly grinning, I made my way back to the table and took my notebook out of my bag. Writing notes for about ten minutes, I was suddenly distracted as a hand rested on my shoulder.

"Takashi-senpai?" I asked in a whisper as I cleared my throat. I didn't expect him to come up to me.

"You write?" he asked bluntly, looking down on me.

"Yes, one of my stories has been published," I replied with a grin, searching through my bag for the cover of my story.

"I've read it," he stated with the same emotionless expression.

Hearing that, I nearly fell off my chair, startling Tamaki-senpai. Although I stayed nested on my chair, I did scream, covering my mouth to silence myself.

"I didn't know my book was read here in Japan!" I complained as I got up off my chair, pacing the centre of the room, my original copy of the cover resting in the tired grips of my hands. "I was told it was printed here, but I didn't know people were buying it!"

Coughing, I took a few deep breaths and tried to relax. I was quite overwhelmed when my friends in England bought my book and personally reviewed it, but I wouldn't expect it to be popular here. I kept pacing the floor, gradually getting faster, soon halted by Honey-senpai, who grabbed my hands and chanted relaxing words. I didn't realise he was in the room, but if Takashi was here, Honey was bound to be as well.

"Mori, isn't this the book you kept talking about a few months ago? You really like crime and investigation fictions?" Honey-senpai chuckled, I think he realised that he wasn't helping.

"Oh! Takashi, was it you who sent me the review by email?" I asked, running off and digging out a heavy folder of paperwork. "My Mum dropped my folder off in school today; it's all the reviews I was given for my book that were sent internationally."

I showed him the printed email, and he simply stared at it. I could tell by the look on his face that it was his. I could tell I was right, the small spark in Takashi's onyx eyes proved it, despite the emotionless expression on his face.

"To be honest, it was the most encouraging email I received. Most of them were simple one sentence emails, but this is like an essay! You don't say much but you'll email a whole conversation!" I giggled as I returned the paper back into its Polly pocket marked 'Japan'.

"Wow, a commoner's famous writings, I have to read it sometime," two familiar voices chuckled.

I turned around; the Hitachiin twins had finally made their appearance. They must have been there a while to know what on Earth we were talking about, no one can be that clever to hitch on a conversation like that!

"I think its luck more than fame," I excused, finally calmed down. "Don't we have a meeting today?"

With that, Tamaki interrupted the conversation and finally it was over. Throughout the entire meeting, Honey, Hikaru and Kaoru glanced at me shortly and repeatedly while Tamaki, Kyouya and I offered ideas to create more interest for the club. Takashi, like always was silent, apart from the rare occasions when he would speak.

"I think on the 13th, we should hold cosplay a theme. Medieval possibly?" Tamaki offered; tapping the large table that we sat around with his fingernails.

"Eh? Why the 13th? Don't we need more time?" I questioned, nervously adjusting the way I sat.

"It's plenty of time, we can be knights or something," Tamaki replied with a grin.

"I'm a girl, it wouldn't work for me," I sulked, crossing my arms across my chest as I started to feel my face burning up.

"You can dress as a… Oh! Perfect!" Tamaki started to say. "It'll be a surprise outfit for you, you'll love it!"

"I think it's best if we all go home, Hollie looks like she's going to keel over," Kaoru teased as he poked my cheek.

'I have a bad feeling about this…' I thought, leaving immediately.

--

The day came too quickly, and I really wasn't as excited as I wanted to be. It was my special day of the year, and I had to dress up as who knows what, just for the Host Club's entertainment.

At least its last lesson, I can try to find a way out of it. I hope. Drama, one of my favourite lessons. Maybe Romeo and Juliet can distract me for a while. I still think it's a bit of a coincidence I have to study it in English, and then perform it in Drama. Ah well, at least it's not a performance for everyone to see. However, I'm the part of Juliet, and we're still deciding the part of Romeo. Why is it that they leave that particular part to last? All the others roles were cast and four people still needed parts.

"Alright, once we decide who Romeo is, we'll add the others as backing roles. Remember, the backing roles are just as important as the main parts. You're key to making it work!" the drama teacher lectured.

'This isn't going to be fun,' I thought, sighing as I stood with my script. 'Why did she have to make me Juliet? This sucks big time…'

I can't believe we spent nearly the whole lesson deciding who plays the part of Romeo. What's even more scary is that Hikaru gained the role. The girls all kept pointing and commenting on how cute they thought it was going to be.

"Don't forget the kiss!" one girl called out. "It's going to be so romantic!"

I froze. A kiss? No! I dropped my script, I could feel it slip through my fingers, but had no control of catching it.

"What's even better is that it's a whole school performance. Even the youngest students will see it! It will be fantastic!" another girl squealed.

I was sure I was going to faint. I was used to these kinds of roles, but kissing Hikaru? No! This is too much! I can't do this!

"Hikaru may be my friend, but I can't kiss him. It'll make things so awkward…" I complained to myself.

"Freaking out I see?" Kaoru chuckled as he rested his elbow on my shoulder, passing my script. "You do realise everyone else in the host club will see this, and you'll be seen kissing my brother."

"Don't make it worse for me. I didn't think I'd have to kiss the leading character. I didn't want to be Juliet either! It just happened," I sighed. "Just kill me now…"

"You're not happy about the romance with Hikaru? I think he's happy," Kaoru teased, pointing to my expected to be lover. "I can't believe he's smiling like that. Don't worry though, we'll have about three months before we perform this. You'll warm up to it."

"That's not helping. Eh… I'm going to go learn my lines…" I mumbled. "Next thing I know I'm singing a song about this."

Sitting myself on a chair, I opened up the thick script, flicking through the pages, searching for my first line. It wasn't long until the lesson was over and the end of the day came. Grabbing my bag, I tucked the script next to my folder of reviews and my current book in progress. Putting my shoes on, I slipped out the classroom and made my way to the clubroom.

'Sometimes I'm grateful they forbid us from wearing shoes around the studio. It hurts my feet sometimes,' I thought to myself, bouncing slightly as I walked.

Slipping through the clubroom door, I closed it behind myself, the twins were already inside and Tamaki was fitting the last piece of his outfit over his head.

"I can't believe you're all wearing authentic armour," I sighed, dragging my bag off my shoulder. "Now what do you plan to humiliate me with?"

"This," Tamaki grunted as he adjusted the steel chest plate to fit more comfortably. Taking the soft fabric, I unravelled a long flowing dress.

"You… you have got to be kidding me? You expect me to wear a dress?" I replied laughing, tears from my fit trickling down my face.

"Yes, now change," Tamaki answered bluntly.

"I refuse, I have tolerated being stuck in this, but I'm not wearing a dress. I'm not a girly person," I groaned.

"Why not Hollie-chan? You'll look even cuter in a dress," Honey-senpai questioned, slowly dragging his feet in the golden armour that made him look so sweet that most girls would hug him until he suffocated.

"I don't see why I have to be seen as feminine as possible, just because I'm a girl. I mean, why does it matter? That we define girls and boys from each other, it's not looks that count, it's the inside," I explained, folding the dress back up neatly.

"It seems we have a confused one, just change and go along with this," Tamaki-senpai chuckled turning me in the direction of the changing rooms and pushing me over.

With a sigh, I pulled the curtain across and took off my school clothes. Unravelling the dress again, I slipped my petite and slim figure inside the fabric. Looking in the mirror that hung on the wall, I actually found myself admiring how I looked. It was like a real ball gown, not the stereotypical flat dress with a headpiece with a flowing translucent cloth.

"Hollie, have you changed yet? Customers will be coming soon," a voice called out, it sounded like… Hikaru's!

"Almost!" I replied, pulling a hair band off my wrist and quickly tying my hair into a princess styled bun, loose strands of hair sitting over my shoulders and down my back as I spun to reanalyse my appearance. "Coming!"

I could hear the rushing of feet as I shouted in response. Pulling the curtain back I sneaked through, the entire host club waiting, and faces burned red as they had seen me fully. Much to my surprise, Honey-senpai reached me first, rapping his arms around my waist and holding me tight.

"I told you you'd look cuter!" he smugly chuckled.

"Now we have a real princess, Hollie, you should perform your part in Drama now, you'd pass the exam for sure," Kaoru teased as he nudged my sides, glancing between Hikaru and I with a grin.

"Don't start," I groaned.

"My daughter looks so adorable, Mother, photos!" Tamaki shouted over the comments, pointing to Kyouya, who must be the 'mother' character he was talking about.

Before I could protest, the flashing of a digital camera almost blinded me as people backed away. I didn't realise at the time I was apparently making amazing natural poses.

"Hollie, have you started learning your lines?" Hikaru asked nervously.

"Yea…" I quietly replied, turning my toes against the floor before being suddenly dragged the centre of the room for our pose.

Customers came in briefly after we were ready, and like always, we welcomed them in unison. I didn't expect just as many girls, as well as boys to rush over to me and comment my appearance.

I was starting to become more accustomed to regular guests, who came almost daily when we held activities. Compared to my first day of hosting, I've become more confident, but still shy. Tama-senpai has become the most requesting to share time with when entertaining guests, and today he had grabbed me before the other hosts. The argument over me was scary. Kaoru's side for Hikaru was our parts for our Drama performance. I think he knew all too well I didn't want reminding of it. Tamaki-senpai won anyway, his authority as 'King' allowed him to win.

I thought my one biggest worry was still a mystery to them, but I was wrong.

On the table where Tama-senpai and I sat with our guests, was a box wrapped in white wrapping paper with a lilac ribbon, tied into a neat bow.

Tamaki then revealed his plan, I don't know how he knew, but had found out about my birthday and had planned with the rest of the host club a gift for me. Handing me the box, I timidly pulled the bow of the ribbon and neatly removed the paper. There in the palm of my hands was a box, opening it, was the most beautiful necklace, with an equally matching pendant, of the entire group, including myself in a pose.

"Our photo? When did you do this?" I questioned, realising that everyone in the room had gathered around us.

"The group planned this after the meeting; you left so fast that we were able to plan a surprise for you," Tamaki-senpai explained, a chuffed grin plastered on his face.

"I don't understand. How did you find out it was my birthday?" I questioned, taking the necklace out of the box, the pendant dangling in front of me.

"Before the meeting, your phone went off after you ran out of the clubroom to get your art book. I checked to see what it was that was making the ringtone and the text flashed in bold letters. I didn't intend on reading it, but it was so obvious that we planned it all for you," Tamaki continued to explain.

"Are you crying?" one of the female guests questioned.

"No," I stated, but it felt like I was going to. "Why did you do all of this for me?"

"Cause you're our friend Hollie!" Honey-senpai laughed, appearing by my right hand side as he lifted his helmet off his head.

Biting my lip, I could feel a strange feeling in my stomach, it was something I had never felt before. Undoing the chain, I put the necklace around my neck, checking the pendant was facing away from my chest, before clasping the chain together to let the necklace sit gently against my chest.

"Oh! So beautiful Hollie!" another one of the female guests squealed. "You're the perfect Juliet for our performance! Hikaru, you should feel so lucky!"

Judging by the look on Tamaki's face, he was about to scream. He did, questioning what was going on. It didn't take long for the same girl who had spoken to explain the situation. I was surprised he didn't ask about it earlier, but he must have been so distracted to think about it.

"My daughter's going to kiss Hikaru?!" Tamaki shouted, banging his fists together.

"It's a performance. Stop worrying senpai," I sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You can't go through with this!" Tama-senpai complained.

"I don't have a choice, besides, I can get a good grade from this. Why do you care so much anyway?" I snapped.

"Daddy doesn't want you to do this, please listen to your Daddy, or Mummy will have to convince you," Tamaki sulked.

I was grateful for Mori-senpai, he somehow convinced Tamaki it wasn't actually going to happen, and the activities continued as before.

'Thank you Takashi…' I thought.


	5. Scholarships Galore!

Authors Notes: Finally an update. I'll admit this chapter might seem slightly unorganised, but like I explained in the first chapter, I'm adapting this story so if you're not happy with how it's exactly like the story, it's not meant to be. I hope you like it anyway. I'm sure people have been asking themselves where Haruhi is, well read the chapter...

* * *

"Senpai, please talk to me. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings when I said I didn't want to give up my part," I complained with a sigh. "It's just not fair to disappoint an audience. Apparently everyone's really excited. I would feel really awful if I quit."

"Daddy's not happy. You can't kiss Hikaru," Tama-senpai mumbled, still curled up in his 'empty-shell' position like he had been for the past twenty minutes, since arriving at the clubroom with me.

"Why not? It's just a performance, there's nothing real about it," I explained. "I don't see why you're so worked up about it."

"You just can't. It's bad publicity," he complained.

"What publicity? It's proving that our class can perform and use our skills to create a good performance," I argued as I crossed my arms across my shoulders. "You don't even have to watch it if you don't want to, you're not forced to."

"The host club always supports their members in what they participate in," Tamaki commented bluntly.

"I can understand that, but you can't sulk in the corner. It won't change anything, nothing will," I debated. "I know you're going to watch the performance, but promise, even if it's not for me, that you'll support the performance, no matter what your views are. It'll mean a lot to me."

"Hollie?" Tamaki questioned in a whisper, looking up at me. "Ok, for you."

"Thank you, come on. Everyone'll want to see you smiling," I giggled.

'Wow, treat him like a child and he'll react like a child,' I cheekily thought.

"Hollie! That's so cute. You're so kind and forgiving!" Tamaki chanted as he wrapped his arms across my chest, strangling me in his embrace. "Please don't change!"

"I don't intend to, but please let me go before I completely flatten," I tried to say, failing as I felt suffocated, and trying to remain my calm endeavour.

Releasing me from his grip, I continued to smile as Tamaki stepped back looking like a guilty child. Giggling once more, I walked off and poured cups of tea Honey-senpai had earlier requested from me. Sitting next to Mori-senpai while Honey ran off to find Usa-chan, I sipped my cup of tea and took a deep sigh as I felt like I had successfully resolved another issue that had been troubling me. Out of nowhere, the smiling Tamaki had seated himself next to me.

"Would you like some tea senpai?" I asked as his purple eyes fixed on me. "I can make any kind if you'd like. I brought a pack of camomile flavoured tea with me today from home."

"Yes please!" Tamaki beamed, shaking his fists up and down as if I had offered him a bag of sweets.

"I'll just get the packet… Ah here it is," I smiled, pulling the packet out of my pocket. "Just give me a minute. The supermarket always offers me new brands as soon as they put them on the shelves. I'm good friends with the manager so he's always offering me discounts."

Opening the packet by the dotted line, I took out one of the tea bags, which filled my nose with a relaxing herbal scent. Putting the tea bag in an empty cup, I took the freshly boiled kettle and carefully poured the hot water into the cup. Putting it down again, I placed the hot cup on a small plate and offered it to the anxious king as he sat with excitement in his eyes. I watched as he took a sip, his eyes lighting up even more as he swallowed the drink.

"Do you like it?" I asked, watching as he closed his eyes and nodded. "It's great for people who can't sleep. I always have some before I go to bed."

"You have sleeping problems?" Mori-senpai asked, making me jumpy slightly.

"Sometimes. Yes. It's nothing big though…" I replied, sighing shortly. "It's best not to talk about it though, it's such a nice day that I don't want to be the blame for a sad conversation."

"Hollie-chan!" Honey-senpai chanted as he skipped, halting next to Mori-senpai. "You look well today, did you do something different this morning? You look so different, I can't see what but it's awesome."

"No I haven't, but that's very sweet of you," I responded as my face started to heat up. "I never really fuss myself."

Sitting silently as I continued to drink my tea, my mind began to wonder. Why was I so much more cheerful lately? I'm really stressed about the drama performance, but I'm smiling and laughing more than usual. It doesn't make sense. Normally I'd excuse myself from talking to Tamaki-senpai when he's sulking, but I felt more encouraged to cheer him up. I just don't understand.

Putting my cup down on its plate, I parted my hair in half down the back of my head and checked my two black hair bands were where they were less than an hour ago when I had P.E (I don't know why I chose that elective). Taking the left side of my hair, I parted it into three sections and hastily began plaiting the long length of locks I had grown over time. Doing so with the other side, I tied it up with the last hair band and sighed when I was finished.

'My hair always gets in the way,' I thought. 'I should cut it, but I spent years growing it.'

"Hollie-chan? I've never seen your hair tied up like that before, it's so cute. It shows the shaping of your face! Aww!" Honey chuckled as he flicked each pigtail playfully.

"Honey-senpai, please, stop. I only tied it because my hair gets in the way all the time," I protested. "Besides, I've never considered myself cute or anything."

"Mah?" Tamaki and Honey chorused as they stared at me intently.

"Did I just say something wrong?" I questioned as I put my index finger up to my chin for effect. Their looks wouldn't stop, and it was creating an unnerving aura like a shroud over me. "Please stop those faces!"

I was about to scream when the door to the clubroom opened, distracting all the hosts in the room. Looking in the direction where the hosts had been staring, a boy in different uniform from the hosts and myself crept inside with books in his arms, much like myself when I first stumbled across the clubroom.

"A visitor?" Tamaki questioned from beside me, standing up in his attempt to formally greet our guest. "Welcome."

The boy just stared, adjusting the large glasses on his face, but something made me doubt myself. He had large feminine brown eyes, nothing like boy's eyes, in fact the shade were slightly darker than my own, and as Honey nudged my left shoulder questioningly, I was sure he couldn't be a boy. I suddenly knew who I was looking at.

"Fujioka Haruhi?" I questioned, unexpectedly with Kyouya-senpai, who questioned me shortly afterwards how I knew our guests name.

"I was reading the newsletter sent home to my parents, which said something about another scholarship student. Apparently they had opening for a two different types of scholarships. I took the opening for the transfer scholarship," I explained, pulling the newsletter out of my bag that I had earlier intended on showing to the host club. Looking at the scholarship student in front of me, I could see how intimidated he felt, just like when I was in his situation. "Please don't feel discouraged, I simply took the liberty of doing research about the school, I'm just as much a new student as you are."

He simply stared at me as if I was some sort of alien, probably because I'm a girl wearing a guy's uniform. I continued to smile, secretly dreading that I spoke. With a sigh, I stepped out the room to go get changed; apparently Kyouya received some sort of delivery that I needed to look at.

In the changing room, I took off the guys uniform after identifying the girls' uniform that the sewing club heard delivered. How they got my measurements, I don't know, but the crème dress that was identical to the other girls' uniform was lying in my arms anyway. As much as I hated the idea of wearing a dress in front of the other students of Ouran, the number of times people called me names was starting to tick me off. It was kind of the sewing club to buy me the appropriate coloured shoes to go with the uniform. With the dress was a note.

_Dear Miss Donaldson,_

_I hope the dress fits to the measurements the hosts gave us. The hosts, especially Tamaki-sama, were eager to buy you the gender-appropriate uniform for you, so we obliged to make it for you. _

_If there are any problems, please drop by the textiles room to let us know and help you._

_We admire your courage to become the only hostess of the club, for whatever reason that may be. Keep working hard; we're supporting you all the way._

_Ouran Sewing Club_

Smiling briefly, I folded up the guys' uniform the hosts had leant to me, then departing the changing room with the clothes in my arms. I was looking around for where Haruhi was, to be shocked as Tamaki was stepping closer and closer, and scaring him as he backed away closer and closer to…

"Wait---Haruhi!!!" I screamed, eyeing the vase on the stand that the twins had presented for the clients yesterday.

Before he could stop to question, he tripped on one of his loose shoelaces, falling backwards onto the vase. It was then things felt like it was in slow motion, as Haruhi tried to grab the falling vase, that slipped through his fingers. With a sigh and a sudden inhale of worry, I ran in the clog like tap-shoes to where the dustpan and brush sat taunting me. Picking them up, I brushed the shattered pieces into the dustpan as quietly as possible, while Haruhi simply looked at the pieces being pushed away, while the twins took their chance to mock him.

"Ah, we were going to sell that for the school auctions, we could have got about 8 million yen for that too," the twins mocked in unison.

"Don't say such things!" I scolded, offering a hand as I helped Haruhi onto his feet as he continued to look as if lightning had just hit him. Poor thing. "Haruhi, please don't feel bad."

"I can't exactly pay for it," he murmured in a sigh, sympathy layering over me like a shroud.

"Well, lets see, Hollie's familiar with this sort of saying but, if you can't pay with currency, you have to pay with your body, so the Roman's say," Tamaki stated. I sighed as the statement ran like a broken record through my head.

"Don't worry Haruhi…" I commented, brushing my white tights with a free hand as the dustpan and brush sat in my opposite hand. "It'll be ok…"

--

It's been a couple of days, and the hosts have all treated our newest host like a servant. I've been offering to help Haruhi as much as possible, but Kyouya wouldn't let me, and every time I argued, he'd walk away so I couldn't say another word.

Apparently, Haruhi is a 'commoner' like me, and in the same class as me. Everyone in our class is setting up competition for us. I don't listen, and continue my normal routine as usual, as long as the Hitachiin twins don't interfere, but there's never a day when that happens. Maybe it's fair to say that their interferences are part of my routine?

Throughout the passing days, I've become a partnered object of desire with Haruhi for the hosts. I can't help but doubt how well this sudden turn around will be. I shouldn't complain, I'm used to the overwhelming attention, but Haruhi doesn't seem to enjoy it all, not that I can blame him. I understand how that feels completely. Apparently now, Haruhi and I are both Tamaki's daughters. It's not even needed to say that neither of us enjoys this title.

Today's activities have been as dull for me as usual, Haruhi is being hassled by Tamaki, while I sit less than a metre away watching from the sidelines, battling with myself whether or not to say something in his defence.

Something about Haruhi seems familiar also, and staring at a photo in my wallet, it doesn't make sense as to why. Watching Tamaki picking something up from the floor by the window, not far from my feet, something aroused my suspicions further.

"Senpai?" I questioned, being completely ignored as usual.

"Haruhi? Come here," he ordered. He stood by his side as told. "This is you?"

"Yes," he answered.

"You're a girl?" he whispered.

"Yes," she replied. "Biologically speaking."

'I knew it…' I thought in my head.

Calling Haruhi over, leaving Tamaki shocked out of his mind, she stood by me without a word. Holding the photo up to her sights, she simply stared.

"You must be… my Japanese pen pal?" I questioned, looking at her with a content look.

"Yes," she answered. I silently responded with a smile; she took my hand and shook it as if it was our first meeting. "You must be Hollie Donaldson, the half Japanese/English student from England?"

"I am," I answered with a wider smile, Tamaki staring at us even more confused as before. "I never got to write to you saying I had moved, it's wonderful that we've met in person. Something about you when we met a few days ago seemed familiar."

It was after that small discovery that Haruhi and I became even more like best friends, almost. We tried to hide it at times, because the awkwardness of the hosts made it hard to talk for even a few seconds without being interrupted, so we decided to continue writing outside of school about matters that we felt were important.

Haruhi has continued to hide her gender, which I'm happy to assist with, although the constant threats from the hosts that make me feel discouraged to come to meetings and activities every day.

--

Walking along the silent corridor, the only noise came from the irritating tapping from my shoes. I was about to walk up the final flight of stairs, when I stopped for a moment.

'I worry about Haruhi, the hosts are so barbaric at times to her, she can't do anything about it, and if I say anything, they'll just make it worse…' I thought to myself. 'Even with all the hassle at home and in school, I still feel I should speak up, but I know it'll just get worse.'

I turned on my heel, walking the opposite direction than I was meant to be, and left the north hall. I silently walked along the path by the side of the building to the bench where Kaoru had reassured me weeks ago. I sat on the cold wood, the winter cold sending shivers through my body. But I didn't care; my mind was too busy trying to figure myself out. Shoving my bag underneath the bench by my feet, I slouched my head in my hands. Thoughts started to unravel.

'How can I handle this? Haruhi's been my friend for longer than I realised, and she's going through the same hassles I had from the hosts, I feel like I should say something but what can I do? It only get worse and worse…' I thought, frowning as the bitter cold felt like nipping on my skin.

"Hollie!" a voice shouted.

Instantly I sat upright as girls were expected. I turned to look in the direction of the voice, to find Haruhi running up to me.

"What are you doing out here alone, it's freezing!" she questioned, pulling the purple blazer of her uniform across her torso to keep herself warmer. "The hosts are waiting for you upstairs."

"Are they?" I dumbly questioned, looking away and turning the balls of my feet with a feeling of sadness.

"Of course, they looked forward to seeing you," Haruhi continued, her charming gentle smile blessing her face. It always made girls scream with delight.

"Before we go up, can you answer a question for me?" I excused, shrugging childishly.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Haruhi questioned with a gentle look on her face that all the girls scream with joy at.

"The hosts seem to hassle you a lot, and it makes me wonder how you're feeling with it, because although I know how it feels, I worry they're not being sensitive to how you feel about it. I'm just curious if you're ok with it, because by that point I would have screamed," I explained, my eyes widening quickly. "Of course I think you're capable of looking after yourself, I just worry about people like that…"

"Don't worry about it Hollie, it's obvious they don't mean to upset anyone so I don't panic. Sure it may be annoying at the time, but that's how guys are right?" Haruhi answered with a laugh.

"You know, Tamaki forced me to join the club for whatever reason. I tried to get out of it, I didn't have a condition at first, but at the time I could have just walked away. He made me the only hostess and I don't understand why. It's a _host_ club, not for hostess' right? I just think that because they're treating you like a guy in front of everyone else, that they're overdoing it," I explained. "I don't really care about whether guys even treat me like a guy or girl, I just don't want to see you being treated badly."

"Hollie, you shouldn't worry so much, and I understand what you mean. Being forced into the club must have felt hard huh? I don't want to be a part of it, but that's how life is right? Just don't panic about me and worry about yourself, you're a great friend so focus about yourself ok?" Haruhi laughed, a small smile creeping onto my face temporarily, but disappearing. "Come on, let's go to the clubroom."

"All right, thanks for letting me get my thoughts out of my head," I thanked with a smile.

"It's ok come on though, they're waiting for you," Haruhi grinned pointing at the window above us, and then grabbing my wrist.

I grabbed my bag as she dragged me up round the side of the building. Letting go of my wrist when we reached the doors to the north hall, we walked side by side, fighting each flight of stairs with the little strength we had from our long day. Haruhi politely opened the doors to the clubroom, inviting me inside. Bowing, I stepped inside, the hosts were all staring at us, as Honey raced towards us both. Wrapping his arms around us both, (somehow), he dragged Haruhi by the end of her sleeves and sat her down with Takashi and himself. I stood by the doorway like a body without a soul, looking for a free seat. I snapped back to reality and sat down quietly at a small table and continued with my book, while being eyed by the confused devils that happen to be the Hitachiin twins. It was fortunate for them it's only a meeting today, but for me I'm sure it means doom.

"If you're going to look confused, at least make it amusing for me, at the moment I'm more likely to leave the room and find somewhere else more entertaining," I teased, cheekily glaring at the twins, the smug grins sneaking into their faces.

"More entertaining? If you want fun, we can teach you about the flawless art of pranks," the boys stated in unison, the kind of unison that normally sent shivers down my spine.

"Please, I've seen enough of your pranks on myself and Haruhi. Soon you'll run out and become even more bored than usual, I don't want to hear it," I coldly answered, a hint of wit sparking inside.

"Is that a challenge?" the twins chuckled in another spine tingling unison.

"If you want it to be, then sure, but don't think I'm going to care," I taunted, pretending to gulp and try to recover my irritated endeavour. "Right now, this play is giving me enough hassle, so your jokes will just be like a coin being thrown at my back; I'll notice, but not care at all."

"Hollie you're really witty today, I've never seen you taunt those two pranksters like that before," Tamaki laughed, leaning on my right shoulder. "It makes you look cuter than usual."

"If wit is what you like, then bare in mind that I'll be witty with everyone within reason," I grinned, staring into Tamaki's purple eyes, which must have been intimidating him as he stood back releasing his weight from my shoulder. "Yea, I thought you'd react like that."

Laughing to myself, Tamaki landed himself in the corner of the room in his common shell-shocked position, this time I decided to ignore it, and continued laughing. It's sometimes amusing the look of despair he creates. Rolling my eyes about half a minute later, I got out of my seat and knelt down next to him once again, smiling amusingly to myself as I prepared to convince him once more not to pout like a toddler.

"I'm sorry senpai, please understand I was only joking," I began, Tamaki's right eyes looking at me shortly before pouting again. "It's not like you never do things to me that make me uncomfortable."

"Mah?" he questioned, before sulking even more.

"Crap… wrong time to say it…" I cursed to myself. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again, I only intended it as a little joke…"

Sniffling, Tamaki looked up at me with puppy eyes, making my heart feel slightly sorry for him. Ignoring the thought, I knew that was his idea of making me feel _really_ sorry for him.

"Come on senpai, show me that pleasant smile of yours," I giggled, please work…

"Ahhh! Hollie, stop being so cute!" he shouted as he instantly got out of his little ball and strangled me with another embrace like always. I should be used to it by now, but it still catches me by surprise.

'I'm not cute…' I thought. "Please stop strangling me senpai, I promise to stop being cute if you do."

Somehow it convinced him, and luckily it was the end of the host club meeting as Kyouya gave us permission to depart from the clubroom. Haruhi and I left together, we both take the some means of transport, and so we often go together now.

"I'll see you tomorrow Hollie," Haruhi smiled.

"You too," I answered with a friendly grin.

* * *

Ending Note: I hope this chapter was ok, and I hope people are happy that Haruhi's added to the story. I planned to add her to the story, but if it was done straight away, I couldn't focus on the main story of my character's involvement. I really appreciate the reviews so far, and it's been really encouraging.


	6. A Broken Deal

**Authors Notes: Here's another chapter, it's quite short but there's a reason for it that's necessary later in the story. I hope it's enjoyable anyway, and I hope to post more throughout the next year! Have a happy new year everyone!**

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"How much of the text have you studied in history Hollie?" Haruhi questioned, as she looked up from behind her textbook. Meetings always ended quickly, and Haruhi and I intended on spending twenty minutes studying together before going home. We're in the same classes so it makes sense to help each other study the same topic.

"The first five chapters we were prompted, and the last three for further background for historical comparisons," I replied, putting my pen down as I finished the last sentence of my notes that I had been writing.

"Oh I see, further than me then," she laughed, the look on her face that would normally make Tamaki squeeze her half to death, but he was too busy in his empty shell position about the play once again. I thought I had cleared it up with him…

"I haven't written as many notes for the main chapters though," I commented, my eyes catching the double side of notes she had written. "Haruhi, how much do you need to write?"

"It saves me writing it up at home," Haruhi continued to laugh, probably from my shocked expression. "Though, you have done more work on the background information. So where I've done more written work on the criteria, you in comparison have the notes to gain extra marks. Do you write up the main criteria at home though? You always end up with more notes than me."

"Yea I do, it's a great excuse from being hassled by… well, people," I replied with a laugh, then looking down at my exercise book eagerly to revise the heaps of extra notes I had been noting.

"Oh right, 'the menace'?" Haruhi teased.

"Menaces more like," I laughed, slightly louder than before. "You know, that whole explanation, if necessary to a debate could have got you good marks if focussed on towards the topic…"

Silence fell on our study group, which was accompanied by Kyouya. It's better to say we joined him because it was in the quieter area of the music room, away from the scheming twins and their pranks-in-the-making. It was after a few minutes, a strange feeling started to make my stomach churn. Looking around as quietly as possible, I thought I could hear whispering. Nothing, I turned back to my book, and the whispering seemed to start again. I turned around once more, nothing. But something was amiss.

'Where are Hikaru and Kaoru?' I thought hesitantly, looking around where they were sat at the opposite side of the room. Nowhere to be seen, it was close to scary. When those two are bored, you want to be as far away as possible.

Turning back to my books, something disturbed me. One of my three books was missing. An unimpressed look fell on my face.

"This isn't funny," I murmured weakly to myself. "I'll just study French language instead."

Looking at where I had dumped my bag, I was even more disgusted to find it gone. How the hell could it disappear without me noticing?

"Haruhi, you haven't seen Hikaru and Kaoru with my books and bag have you?" I murmured slightly louder than before.

"No, I've been reading," she replied in a whisper while she continued reading. "They're probably up to another prank again though."

"Yea…" I sighed, getting up from my knelt position and looking properly around the room. "I can't see the cheeky cows…"

Sighing, I began to pace around the floor; the twins were nowhere in sight, and my stress levels were quickly rising metres at a time. It's not the first time they've irritated me like this. I stopped at tapped the heels of my shoes against each other as my thoughts came to a conclusion, a grin creeping onto my face.

"Hollie-chan, what are you thinking?" Honey questioned as he turned quietly from his table where he sat opposite from Mori-senpai. It must have been the heeltaps that caught his attention.

"If Hikaru and Kaoru want to play games, again. I'll play," I cheekily laughed.

"Hollie-chan, that's a big risk," Honey murmured, the cute expression on his face as he tilted his head with a look of wisdom.

"I know, but you can't live life without taking a step on the wild side right?" I concluded, my grin widening more and more.

"Make sure you win, they won't let you live it down otherwise," Honey murmured, a look of concern on his face. He obviously figured out there's no convincing me.

Putting a thumbs up, in my head I doubted myself increasingly. I'm used to people pulling pranks on me, but I know already that the Hitachiin twins are not to be meddled with. Maybe it's the amount of studying that's making me act like this.

Walking towards the large double doors, I was about to open them when someone else did from the opposite side, bashing my face. I'm sure a bruise was going to appear on my forehead.

"Oww…" I complained, rubbing my forehead with a circular motion to relax the skin and nerves.

"Oh, sorry," an all too familiar voice apologised. My eyes widened as I realised whom. Of course, the person was speaking in English, so it didn't even take a brain cell to figure it out.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned with an unimpressed tone, appearing from behind the door, my accusation correct.

"To bring your bag and books back. Some twins ran past me and dumped them on me," the irritating young male voice answered, his dark brown eyes staring at me unimpressed with my greeting. "They said: 'don't give them to anyone until we come back."

"Sounds like Hikaru and Kaoru," Haruhi added with a murmur, as she remained sat near Kyouya reading her textbook.

"Is that their names? I'll remember that," the boy answered as I nodded in reply to his question. "Well, I better get back to study group…"

"You're in a study group?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Yea, got a problem with that?" he snapped, pointing his index finger at me.

"Who is this anyway?" Tamaki interrupted as he appeared by my side, it was about time he stopped sulking.

"Everyone… meet my younger brother Jack. Jack, meet the host club…" I introduced with an irritated sigh. "Jack is in the lower school section."

They all exchanged names, and I soon became irritated as Jack refused to speak in Japanese. I blame our older brother for that; he's such a bad influence. Requesting Jack to speak in Japanese, the sibling menacing was bound to begin. Moments before I decided it was my turn to get rid of one my many menaces, the twins appeared from behind the corner of the hall and I knew once and for all hell was going to happen if I didn't act quickly.

"Hikaru! Kaoru!" I shouted as I pointed angrily in their direction. "What a cheap trick!"

"We were bored," the two boys shrugged, it was always that look that made my blood boil.

"You're always bored, you could have at least dumped my stuff on someone in our section of the school, not my brother!" I continued, shouting even louder than before.

"He's your brother?" the boys questioned as they tilted their heads in unison.

"Unfortunately I am," Jack groaned, but I could see the sparkle of cheek in his eyes that made me want to kick him out of the room.

"Jack, please leave. You've stayed too long already," I answered in a monotone, pointing out the doorway.

"No way, this kid has potential," the twins protested. "Though next time, don't give her stuff back to her."

"If I knew you were her friends, I will. I thought you stole them, like you know, a real thief, so I gave them back before she would come home complaining," my idiot of a brother laughed. He pushed it too far...

"Jack, out! You two! Stop encouraging him! He's bad enough at home!" I snapped, turning on my heel and storming off. I'm always such an air head when my brother's around. Sitting back down by Haruhi, I turned to look over my shoulder at my sibling. "You broke the deal."

--

"Why were you so angry sis? I gave your stuff back!" Jack questioned as I continued reading in the living room.

"We agreed we wouldn't talk to each other in school! You demanded yourself you wanted to live separate lives and get on with things. Look, I'm grateful you brought my bag back but you shouldn't have encouraged my friends to make more pranks on me!" I ranted slamming my book on the table. "Now, they want you to visit them as much as possible! It's bad enough that they tricked me into… oh! Never mind!"

"For once I get along with your friends and now you're nagging me about it?" Jack continued to question, it was slightly off topic, but that's just one of his ways of annoying me.

"You know I didn't want you around me at school as much as you don't! Why were you in that area of school anyway?" I groaned, glaring into my brother's dark brown eyes as his seemed just as angry as mine.

"I was asked to find some guy called Fujioka Haruhi. I left as you forced me to and my friends told me I didn't need to find him," Jack answered, shrugging as he spoke.

'Even lower school kids have heard about her, at least the gender thing is working on them too…' I thought briefly.

"Fine, just make sure it doesn't happen again… Don't ever talk to me in school unless it's completely necessary," I growled, picking my book up and continuing my studies.

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**Ending Note: I hope this was ok... I hope to make the other chapters longer but adding this chapter was really necessary like I said at the top of the chapter. Anyway, I hope it was ok... Please don't get mad!!!**


	7. Mascot Girl

**Author's Notes: **I realise it has literally been years since I've updated this story. So indeed I am very sorry about that! I'm currently on summer break from college at the moment so I have lots of time. To answer my most review: yes I know I made my brother a bit mad, but he is cheeky in real life too. Anyway, I hope this chapter is enjoyable, especially now I've sorted my honourifics out, I can finally address the characters properly. Anyway, it's time I introduced another new character from the manga. I also realised how non-chronological I made this now, however, I don't mind since it's more original that way.

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The following days passed reasonably quietly. Jack had agreed to keep his distance, which he kept his end of the bargain dutifully. The one occasion he stopped to talk to me was asking me about whether I was picking up groceries on my way home, or if that was his duty. Ridiculous question. You couldn't rely on him to remember to get everything we needed, and our older brother –who I have avoided thus far to my pleasure- was no better.

My classes had also remained monotonous, only drama was of much interest, but that was inevitable. It was all in the name. Our rehearsals had begun to progress and we had read through our scripts all the way through without disruption and we had begun to take to the stage, starting from the beginning and performing to what was natural to us. I think oddly enough, this class put a test on everyone else but myself. Hikaru was my Romeo and I was his Juliet, and when it came to the kissing scenes –and other intimate scenes-, our teacher persisted that it should wait until our final performance to the rest of the school, and apparently other schools (heaven forbid I was dreading this), and let the romance be more 'natural'. This relieved the girls to no end, and I think, although the female hostess plan had fallen on its face, some of the guys also seemed relieved. I think for both Hikaru and Kaoru, it was a relief as well, though I couldn't understand why.

In the most recent days, in between building the set, many of the main cast –including myself, obviously- had been brought to the side as the design side of the production took their turn to work with us. Kaoru seemed very much happy to assist with preparing my costumes, styling my hair and such. I was surprised he wasn't envious of the girls attending his older twin brother, but something told me he was happy to see his brother around other people. It was something I had begun to notice slightly. Though, in my company, Kaoru persisted to get to know me better. I couldn't complain, Kaoru wasn't that bad a person and less devil-like than his brother when he was on his own. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself at times, often teasing me when I felt the nerves on the back of my neck tingle and provoke a shiver when he tried out different hairstyles. At times, he would grin to me in the mirror he would sit me in front of and tease me on purpose.

It was now the start of December, and everyone was feeling the cold. However, when I opened the doors to the clubroom, the rest of the host club were dressed in traditional kimonos of varying colours. Haruhi as well, dressed as femininely as Tamaki was probably going to get away with, wore a beautiful pink kimono with ribbon tied on the right side of her hair, with small loose tufts teasing the top of her ear. Many guests had already arrived, and I was quickly moved to the side to change by Hikaru and Kaoru who explained that they were designs their grandmother had made.

Undressing behind a curtain, I somehow managed to pull the silk torso of the kimono over each of my arms. Kaoru soon assisted in preparing the obi. When I asked him why he had decided he was the one helping me, he merely answered with a chuckle that it wasn't a bad thing to help me with my costume, both in drama and in the clubroom as well. I couldn't think of a reasonable argument, and as he tied the layers of the obi around my waist, I felt the natural desire to suck my breath in as I moved the long sleeves out of Kaoru's way. Kaoru in the meantime just laughed, reminding me I wasn't wearing a corset, and slyly mentioned I wasn't that big in size to need to anyway. I wasn't sure why, but the comment made my cheeks heat up slightly. I wasn't sure if maybe it was the weight and insulation of the silk.

"I'm going to give you a chance to put on your sandals. Don't take too long," Kaoru said as I took my time figuring out the most efficient way to move around. I nodded over my shoulder and he quickly departed to go back to his brother, and to please his guests.

After I took a moment to wriggle my feet so the sandals fit properly, I turned around carefully and after unsheathing my hand from beneath the purple floral-patterned sleeve, I pulled the curtain aside and stepped out, where each of the hosts, -starting with Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai- took notice of my appearance. Honey-senpai quickly pulled a wide grin and the rest of his quests quickly followed suit in noticing me. I could feel my face burn up violently, but I swallowed back and focused on stepping into the room without tripping over my own feet.

Kaoru looked at me from a distance, stood with Hikaru and gave me an encouraging smile. I could feel myself going cross-eyed when I refocused on the tiles ahead of my feet. For a brief moment, I thought I could see from the corner of my eye the twins exchange grins with each other, but I was pretty sure I was going mad. Around the room, I could hear a variety of voices giving praise to the kimono, and occasionally to me. One voice described me as being a foreign princess, which was confirmed true as the twins appeared by my side. With a seductive grin, they leaned in close on either side of me.

"It's a shame isn't, Kaoru," Hikaru began, moving his head even closer. "Our host club princess is being given such praise. It's a shame, I would give her to you happily to see you smile."

"But she's your princess, Hikaru. After all, you are lovers in our drama play," Kaoru returned, moving in equally close. At this point they each had a finger caressing a cheek softly. I could only hold my breath and wait to see how this played out. After teasing my cheeks, Kaoru pulled away with a rejected expression on his face holding himself tight. "But it's not fair. Seeing you so close to Hollie, yet understanding why you couldn't resist a rare sight."

Hikaru held a shocked and thoughtful expression before releasing my cheek and retreating to his brother's side and holding Kaoru tightly in his arms, whispering reassuring words that were deafened by the screams of customers who shouted for more. Assuming freedom, I turned my attention back to the centre of room, where Tamaki was piling very fancy looking Japanese sweets in her open palms, mumbling something about being more generous than the two 'unscrupulous' twins. I rolled my eyes and joined Kyouya-senpai who was knelt on a mat writing in Japanese calligraphy. He quickly acknowledged me by looking over his right shoulder before putting the calligraphy set on the wooden table in front of him and standing, towering next to me. Haruhi quickly took notice, along with the rest of us, a girl who looked like she was in my year, peering nervously from behind one of the supporting pillars. Squeaking at the entire club seeing her, Hikaru and Kaoru quickly took their opportunity again to shine. They appeared by her side, forcing her away from the pillar and revealed a red rose from their sleeves trying to welcome the 'lost kitten'. Frightened further, the girl retreated hiding her face under her light brown fringe and pulling her arms closer to her chest. Tamaki-senpai, being the king after all, took his turn, using a number of compliments trying to lure the princess out of her shell. I felt the urge to step forward and reason with him that he was being too pushy on her as well, but I stopped mid-step as the girl pushed senpai away forcefully by his cheek, screeching that he was a "phony prince".

I fought back a giggle, while the other hosts around me, besides Kyouya-senpai and Mori-senpai, watched in shock. Tamaki-senpai, flinching with his hand holding the slightly reddened handprint on his face, stuttered sounds as the girl pointed accusations at him.

I was pretty sure Tamaki-senpai was over reacting, but with every insult she spouted: dumb, narcissist, incompetent, commoner, and finally the worst. As she spoke each word, he somehow convulsed his body in some sort of injured fashion and when she finally called him "the worst" it dealt the final blow and the twins watched with amazement as he somehow defied the laws of gravity in a slow motion fall in front of us. For a second I just sighed, crossing my arms as I tried to make sure what I just saw wasn't a figment of my imagination.

I was surprised when after Tamaki had hit the floor, that Kyouya-senpai was the one to break the silence. From his previously uninterested expression, his expression changed to one of surprise, before questioning if it was someone. He barely finished his sentence when the girl, with unusually teary eyes, bouncing on the already bruised Tamaki-senpai leaped into his arms saying "Kyouya-sama" thoughtfully. Kyouya-senpai seemed almost unfazed and didn't respond to embrace her, but didn't fight her off either.

In this moment, the rest of us took a moment to adjust to this strange turn of events. In the meantime, I aided Tamaki-senpai in returning to his feet, before pulling away from me and running into one of the changing rooms. We all quickly changed back into our school uniforms after the other customers had left.

Haruhi served our unusual guest tea, as the rest of us took a place on a sofa opposite where she sat. Tamaki, however, sat in his own corner of woe, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

"I'm Houshakuji Renge. I moved here from France to study," she said, holding the teacup in her hands.

"It seems she's also the daughter of a work partner of my father's," Kyouya-senpai quickly added.

"And she's also your arranged fiancé?" the twins asked in sync, looking between Renge-san and Kyouya-senpai, to which point Renge nodded with a small squeak and a smile. The twins then looked over their left shoulder at Tamaki who was huddled over childishly. "So Daddy is angry and Mummy for keeping a secret."

Haruhi and I glanced at each other with a confused expression for a moment, before Kyouya explained that in terms of position, Tamaki assumed the father position, and Kyouya was the mother and vice-president of the club. Sighing, I picked myself off the sofa and back on my feet, and made my way round to Tamaki-senpai who ignored me for a few seconds when I stopped to bend down to meet him in his crouched position.

"Senpai, you can't stay like this forever. I'm sure Kyouya-senpai didn't mean to hide anything from you," I said quietly as he flinched at my voice. For a moment he stared at me with pitiful eyes before looking away and standing up, I also did so.

"Hollie… You're probably right," he finally said once he straightened himself up. He then snapped his fingers with a determined grin, catching everyone else' attention. "I have an idea! Renge-kun, could you do us a wonderful favour and take Haruhi and Hollie under your wing? It would be wonderful to improve their attitudes in a more feminine way."

I stared at him in disbelief, before exchanging a 'you've got to be kidding me' expression from Haruhi. But before either of us could say anything, Renge was up on her feet saying she would be the perfect mascot girl and would love to bake "Kyouya-sama" cookies. Upon hearing this, Tamaki whisked Haruhi and I away and we had no choice but to lead Renge-chan to the cooking rooms in a different building of the school.

Haruhi, Renge and I spent the next two hours baking in the highly designed cooking rooms, where Haruhi proved once again to me just how skilful she was domestically. Renge however, we discovered, wasn't so skilful at these sorts of things. At times, Haruhi or myself would have to rescue her from near-disaster situations. However, the cookies weren't going to be so lucky.

We returned with Renge's batch of cookies, my own stashed to share with my family, where Tamaki claimed the first to taste them as the king of the host club. The number of times I felt like groaning and fought back in the one second after he said it… Ahhh, dear me. Was all I could muster in my head.

Honey-senpai quickly took his turn eying the sweets with a hungry grin. As he nibbled on a single cookie, the expression on his face fell to one of less than pleasure. He was quickly joined by Mori-senpai who tried to convince him to stop eating the cookie since it would be bad for his body. At this time, Haruhi and I had taken a chance to taste a cookie each and make a judgement of our own. Nibbling on the treat, the taste wasn't that bad, and as Haruhi followed to comment, it didn't smell entirely repulsive either. As Renge chased our senpais in a fit of rage, Hikaru and Kaoru each decided it was their turn to try the cookies for themselves, however, Haruhi and I didn't expect to be victims along side them. Hikaru, taking the cookie still perched in Haruhi's mouth with his own, snapped the cookie with teeth with his eyes locked on Haruhi's. Kaoru in turn stood at my side with a seductive look in his eyes, commenting that I somehow had crumbs all over my right cheek, and licking them off with the end of his tongue. I didn't feel bothered by this overly intimate gesture, but I wasn't going to deny it was odd. I'm used to their odd behaviour. But I realised why they behaved that way as Tamaki snorted in disgust and scolded Haruhi and I for lacking the appropriate response to their 'sexual' harassment.

"Senpai, please don't sexually harass me yourself," Haruhi bluntly answered as her eyes shifted between Tamaki's hands which cupped her face.

The twins stood pleased as Tamaki-senpai shouted that he wasn't harassing her, and if he was, what were the twins' behaviour like in comparison. Shaking my head, Kyouya-senpai took a moment to slyly comment on the nature of our classmate bond.


	8. Curiosity

**Author's Notes: **Another update! I suppose this is my own personal celebration for my AS results, which although weren't amazing, weren't awful either. (C's in Drama and Film and D's in English and History, huge bummer...) Anyway, I still haven't made a firm decision who I want to pair my OC off with yet, so if you have any opinions that you think are ideal, I may consider them. Though from asking a number of people and investigating I have almost come to a conclusion. All opinions are of course welcome, though please be constructive and fair. I really appreciate the reviews I've had for this story as well, it really makes me smile a lot.

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The following day after Renge-chan arrived our entire class in homeroom seem transformed by her arrival. The entire atmosphere of the room had become more energetic, and our breaks and lunch break also seemed to be adapting in a similar fashion. Haruhi and I remained in the classroom like usual to eat our packed lunches while Hikaru and Kaoru ate in the high school cafeteria. This was the only time that Haruhi and I had a break from her, though the classroom still emanated an excited buzz where she had caught the attention of the students in our class.

After school in the host club, Haruhi and I arrived slightly late from studying in the library to find Renge-chan marching in circles in front of the host club who were seated on a sofa watching her with little interest. Tamaki however, seemed more eager than the rest of the host club, nodding every now and then as Renge continued to speak. Approaching the back of the sofa, Haruhi and I tried to tune it to her lecture to the best of our ability.

"Kyouya-senpai, what's going on?" I whispered over his right shoulder, watching as Renge continued to pace, making hand gestures and strong facial expressions as she spoke.

"She seems to have analysed our characters within the host club, and thinks there needs to be changes, to avoid becoming stale to the customers," Kyouya-senpai answered. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but it sounded like Kyouya-senpai was feeling somewhat agitated for some reason.

"That's why, I have decided new and improved character backgrounds that will refresh your roles," Renge continued to lecture, this time she stopped in the middle of the floor in front of everyone, pointing at us with one hand, the other resting on her hip. She looked across us all with a major grin.

Moving from left to right, she labelled the hosts with their new identities, each to their own despair. Hikaru and Kaoru were basketball players trapped in their own world. Honey-senpai was a bully with Mori-senpai as his quiet subservient right hand man. She then turned to Haruhi and labelled her as the poor honour student trapped by bullying. As her eyes turned to look at me, I could feel my body stiffen. I hated stereotypes and I didn't particularly like people who stereotyped others. I could feel the expression on my face turn serious as she took a moment to deliberate her decision.

"Hollie-san, since you're the only girl besides myself in the host club, and you don't play a specific role for me to base my decision, I decided to judge based on what other students in class have told me. Which is why you are the poor honour student 'dandere' type," Renge-chan finally said, grinning with a chuckle as I stared vacantly at her.

Turning to Tamaki, she labelled him the lonely prince, loved for his looks but actually insecure of being accepted by others. Hikaru and Kaoru quickly explained that 'dandere' was a person who generally only spoke when they were spoken to or when necessary and spoke openly around people they were comfortable with. I wasn't sure how accurate that was, but since Renge spoke to our classmates, who I hadn't taken much time to become very acquainted with, I suppose there was an element of truth to it.

Looking back, Renge was happily cooing her head in her hands as she said Kyouya-senpai could stay as his 'perfect' loving and considerate self. Even I couldn't fight back a surprised expression, but the rest of the host club were more than expressive as to how untrue the 'shadow king' -as Haruhi had called him-, the statement was.

After a brief while, Renge finally stopped cooing and explained that she had taken advantage of the opportunity to boost the host club's reputation by asking some Hollywood producers to come over to the academy and making a short film for her, and within seconds, she was running through her list of ideas of 'captivating' scenes, while the rest of us didn't really bother to listen. Sighing, I looked back at Kyouya-senpai ready to beg for a chance to get out of this.

"Kyouya, why do we have to do this? It's clearly crazy," Tamaki-senpai whispered over his Kyouya-senpai's left shoulder.

"Perhaps, and although she isn't officially my fiancé, she is the daughter of a very important business client to my family. Please do not upset her," Kyouya senpai answered, not looking up as he continued writing in his notepad.

"N-not your fiancé?" Tamaki stared back, before lighting up. Grinning, he stood upright and positioned himself near a wall, making poses and seeking Renge-chan's attention to judge if he was suiting his new character right.

Apparently this was Kyouya-senpai's reason to convince Hikaru and Kaoru to cooperate, as they pulled pieces of the puzzle together as to why Renge-chan seemed to regard Kyouya-senpai so fondly. Kyouya-senpai concluded at a later point that she must have some sort of infatuation for a character from a romance video game, who Kyouya apparently looked like. The glasses included. This made sense as to why Renge-chan was so love struck and wanted to be engaged to Kyouya-senpai, but I wasn't convinced it was reason enough to stereotype us.

But it didn't matter, for the rest of the afternoon and for the following day, Renge-chan had convinced Kyouya-senpai to take the club outside to begin filming the numerous scenes for the short movie. I was fortunate to not have many scenes that I was in, and spent more time assisting Kyouya-senpai as he quietly monitored the progress being made. At times, I helped the others, like when Honey-senpai and Haruhi had scenes where they used hosepipes to make rainy scenes, and would supply towels for them to dry off with.

As Hikaru and Kaoru were filming their basketball scene and Tamaki-senpai was filming his own rain scene, I prepared in advance and carried a set of towels from one of the storage rooms. On my way back round the side of the building, two of the American producers who Renge-chan had hired were talking and when they noticed me, I expected to just be able to walk on past.

I was wrong. Upon closer inspection they realised I was the author of the crime novel I had written and began questioning me on the different offers I had been given about turning my book into a movie. I honestly answered that I hadn't been given any offers and had no intention of having a movie adaptation made. They refused to believe me, and told me that they could convince their superiors that they could get a movie made with leading Hollywood actors. Insecure, the only thing I could think of as I clutched the folded white towels was the move further away to get some distance, as a sense of claustrophobia overwhelmed me.

"Don't cause trouble and hassle her," an agitated voice said from my right. What surprised me was that the voice spoke in English, though the voice was clearly foreign to the language.

Looking in the direction of the voice, Kyouya-senpai stood less than a foot away from me, leaning his elbow at the same height as my head, his fists clenched, as he glared at the two men who were less than a foot in front of me as well.

They stared at him in speechless. They shook their heads and ran in the direction I had arrived. A few moments after they had disappeared around the corner of the building. I looked up Kyouya-senpai, who was still stood in the same position.

"You should be more assertive, or you'll only come to harm," he finally said, looking down at me. I desperately wanted to see the expression in his eyes, as the rest of his face failed to show any emotion, but the glare of light made it almost impossible to see.

For a moment I just watched that unreadable expression. As the words filled my head, it made me wonder. Was he reprimanding me, or was he actually concerned about me?

"Thank you," I finally said, releasing my grip on the towels that had probably developed creases, and pulling myself away from the wall. I walked around him as he straightened himself and moved away from the wall. When I passed him shoulder-to-shoulder I stopped, and decided to ask. "Senpai, why did you help me? Acting like you did, wasn't that somewhat out of line? Behaving so threateningly, it really wouldn't have helped you, would it?"

"When the services you are given become a hassle, it's right to put them in their place," Kyouya answered, turning his head over his shoulder facing me.

"That doesn't answer my last question does it?" I asked. "There's no reason for you to act on an emotional level, and you don't put yourself on a good grounds with those guys whether they're of use to you or not."

For a moment there was silence, and I carried on my path and reached the corner of the building where I began to hear the sound of movement behind me. Turning slightly, Kyouya-senpai was now facing me. This time, there was a slight grin on his face, though the expression in his eyes was still unreadable.

"That's an interesting thought," he said, before following up behind me and we walked past the building where we could see a scene that shouldn't have been caught on camera.

Leaning against the wall hunched slightly, Haruhi hid her face as metal poles for supporting structures clattered to the ground. With her, Tamaki-senpai held her arms and supported her back onto her feet. A few feet behind them, Renge-chan knelt on the ground watching the same sight us with surprised eyes, which quickly turned to ones of eager creativity.

"Amazing!" Renge-chan squealed, and looked towards a cameraman who sat at a large professional camera pointed at the two. "Did you get that on camera? Ignoring the contacts slipping out, that scene of violence and valiance will be perfect for the final scene, and with Kyouya-sama doing a voice-over-"

She was cut off by the sound of shattering glass. Kyouya-senpai was no longer at my side like before, but by the camera with a large rock in his outstretched arm, which had been smashed into the professional camera I had seen moments before. His expression this time was picture perfect. Disgust. Irritation. Impatience.

"Don't cause so much hassle for others, and cause inconvenience to those around you," Kyouya hissed through his teeth, before straightening himself up and composing himself. "Any evidence of the host club behaving indecently is not of credit to us."

I stared at him in wonder. It was amazing to see what Kyouya-senpai was capable of, and just how he went about it. I was certain that he was concerned about me, but at the same time, I felt like I learnt a lesson, as I watched Renge-chan fall to the floor dramatically on her knees and weep. Kyouya-senpai knew how to be cruel but kind. But it didn't seem the rest of the club that was present realised that. Haruhi continued to explain to her that she shouldn't base her views of people off of stereotypes. Renge-chan looked up at Haruhi –who by this point had adjusted her contacts- and assumed that she meant Haruhi wanted Renge to get to know her personally.

Crossing my arms across my chest, I smiled with a sigh. Kyouya-senpai moved away from the camera back to his place next to me as the Hollywood film producers panicked about the impact on their budget. I hated to admit it, but I think I respected Kyouya-senpai a little more.

The following day at the host club, the customers were hyped over the finished product of the short movie that Renge-chan had burnt to disks the previous evening and sent to be delivered in the morning. The customers were excitedly making their views clear about their favourite scenes and who their favourite 'actor' was.

"The final scene between Tamaki-sama and Haruhi-kun was just beautiful!" one girl squealed.

The hosts stopped and stared at Kyouya-senpai.

"Did Kyouya-senpai break the camera?" Kaoru began.

"How did the tape survive?" Hikaru finished.

"You didn't seriously think I would break the camera without recovering and removing the unnecessary data first? This is top quality material, which will be of great use to us."

"O-of course," the twins admitted with disgusted expressions.

"The photos from earlier were of only an amateur quality and the standard could not be used consistently if we are to please our customers and maintain a strong budget," Kyouya-senpai continued to explain.

"Ah, so this is what it was really about," I murmured as I stood with a tray of teacups and snacks at his side.

'I suppose I had put my faith too high into him to think there was an inch of considerate feeling and emotion within that man,' I smirked slightly in thought as I watched Kyouya-senpai's unreadable expression.


	9. PrePerformance Nerves and Jitters

**Author's Notes: **Here is another update. I'm afraid my updates will become even harder to do now that I'm coming up on a new year of 6th form college, which means deadlines, and exams, and coursework - and you know what I mean. However I will do my best. I really feel like I'm begging here, but if you have any thoughts at all, please review and let me know, of course, be constructive and such. It really helps to know what you're thinking, and it's very motivational for me to write more. It's because a friend of mine has been poking at me to update, that I have felt motivated enough to write at all. So if you do want to update, let me know how serious you are so my lazy head will get to work.

Also if you do have a preference or ideas of who you want my OC to be paired with, let me know, it's always fun to know what the audience is thinking.

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A few days on, we were becoming progressively close to the performance night for our Romeo and Juliet production. It the date on my phone's calendar wasn't enough of a reminder, the attention and tension both in class and in the clubroom was a constant reminder. To be specific, we were exactly a week away from performance night, and Hikaru had become more nervous around me. We were supposed to have a few kiss scenes, but we had never rehearsed any of those scenes with those details before. But I could understand why Hikaru was feeling nervous. If wasn't Hikaru's first kiss, it was certainly mine.

In the clubroom, the girls were becoming more and more excited about seeing the production, and a few of the girls commented that I was an 'actress' in the host club short movie and their expectations –to my dismay- increased my nerves tenfold.

Today it was six days until the production, and the hosting session was cut short so we could squeeze in tomorrows meeting in this afternoon, since almost half the host club, -Hikaru, Kaoru and myself- were going to be excused from club activities for the rest of the week for rehearsals. Hikaru had been the centre of attention among the female customers, asking him if he was looking forward to performing. I give him credit: I knew he was nervous, but he maintained his usual swagger for his brotherly act and teased his brother than watching him perform would give teach Kaoru how to be a loving partner. Of course, the guests responded with giggles as Kaoru feigned jealousy and adoration at his twin.

I also had an unusual number of male guests –I say male guests, they were male classmates from drama- who for some reason or another felt the need to be around me twenty-four seven. I wasn't sure if maybe they forgot that the rest of the week we were rehearsing for three hours everyday after school, and inevitably had my company all to themselves regardless.

The entire clubroom was tense as the meeting began. I was sat next to Haruhi on my left and Kyouya-senpai on my right. Tamaki assumed his kingly position at the head of the table by Kyouya-senpai. Hikaru and Kaoru sat close together opposite Haruhi, with Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai sat next to each by Tamaki-senpai opposite myself and Kyouya-senpai.

Like always, Kyouya-senpai scribed everything onto is laptop. But for some reason, the clubroom felt tense, and there was less energy than usual. Tamaki-senpai was avoiding eye contact with me; he didn't want to think of his precious 'daughter' being kissed by her 'brother'. I didn't understand why he still considered me his daughter, since I knew all too well the person he focused all of his real energy on now was Haruhi. It wasn't hard to tell why, though he was very much oblivious to it himself. Hikaru refused to look at me as much, probably from nerves. I'm guessing looking at me was a reminder of our drama production and didn't want to be reminded of it. Kaoru on the other hand, refused to look away from me. I knew I couldn't hide my nerves: my hands were often shaky from adrenaline during rehearsals. I could often control my voice to avoid stammering, but he knew from talking to me that being the centre of attention wasn't something I enjoyed. Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai had each picked up on the strange atmosphere, and being responsible senpais tried to lighten the atmosphere as much as they could: usually Honey-senpai would insist on sharing slices of cake with us, or asking us odd trivial questions to distract our thoughts.

Kyouya-senpai strangely, seemed to notice just as much as Kaoru that I was struggling to maintain my cool. At times he would actually let me assist him and teach me about aspects of business just to ease my mind. At times I noticed him checking on me from his laptop as he typed throughout the meeting, as I watched the words appear almost instantly as he recorded –with great skill- every word that my bumbling senpai would spill from his mouth with great amounts of melodrama.

Haruhi, being my closest friend, just exchanged reassuring smiles and often excused herself to pour us all herbal tea. The scent wafted through the room as it took a little bit of stress off my mind. When she returned she asked me with a whisper if I was ok, and I just nodded. Kaoru, still watching me intently, could see the nervousness in my eyes as he moved his torso slightly away from his brother and smiled equally as kindly at me.

After the meeting ended, everyone apart from myself dismissed from the table to set about their own tasks. My eyes focused on the centre of the table and I tried to calm my thoughts. I didn't feel like I had the energy to move yet.

"Hollie, I'm heading to the library to find some books. Would you like to join me?" Haruhi said as she opened one of the double doors.

"Ah, but we have to rehearse a bit today," Kaoru quickly said from the corner of the room, kneeling on the floor as he retied a shoelace. Haruhi nodded and excused herself, giving me a 'do your best' kind of smile. Standing up he walked over to my left hand side and rested a hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright? You haven't been yourself all day."

"It's just performance nerves…" I mumbled, still looking at the table. A few moments passed.

"You've still got me to talk to you know. I don't know if you knew that," Kaoru finally said, leaning down so we were at eye level. My troubled expression seemed to fade a little as I forced a smile back. Kaoru's expression soon matched mine with more enthusiasm.

"Thank you," I said with a bigger grin, my cheeks feeling slightly warmer. Kaoru watched my expression for a moment before pulling away. "I-I'll go grab my books and I'll catch up to you and Hikaru in the drama auditorium."

"Okay," Kaoru smiled as he stepped aside for my to get up. "Hikaru doesn't mean to be rude to you, by the way. He's just nervous that's all."

I looked at him for a moment. Honestly, the fact he had been ignoring me outside of rehearsals bothered me a little, but I didn't want that to be obvious. I knew Hikaru was much fonder of Haruhi than myself, but I knew he didn't hate me. I also knew Kaoru and I were closer compared to his relationship with Haruhi.

After a moment in thought, I smiled and nodded, earning a smile from Kaoru. Walking over to the curtains where I had stashed my books, I grabbed my book bag and a few folders that didn't fit and adjusted them so I could carry them conveniently: I left my bag in drama since I knew I was rehearsing today.

"Hollie," a voice said, startling me. Looking over to my right, Kyouya-senpai was stood over his own book bag, packing his laptop away as he leaned slightly on the table he was stood at. "Do your best for your class performance."

I stared at my senpai in disbelief. Was he being nice to me? Again? I couldn't read the expression on his face as he pushed the laptop and his books away still.

"You're representing the host club after all. This is good publicity for us," he then said.

I froze for a moment, before biting the inside of my cheek with a slight smirk. 'Kyouya-senpai will always be Kyouya-senpai', I thought.

"Have you told Hikaru and Kaoru this?" I asked curiously, trying to mask the mischievous spark. I secretly wondered if this was Kyouya-senpai's way of getting to know me. Of course, that was just crazy.

"They're more than aware of what their actions mean for the host club. It's important you're aware of this too," Kyouya-senpai answered, picking up the bag and walking past me to leave. "Do your best."

Tensing my left shoulder I grinned as I watched him leave, hoping my shoulder would disguise the amused expression, in case he turned to look at me. When he left, I stared down my folder piled on top of my brown book bag. From one of the folders, I could see the script our teacher had given us. We stopped using scripts ages ago, but it looking at it for some reason made me smile thoughtfully.

"Hollie-chan, do your best in rehearsal today," Honey-senpai said as he stood with Mori-senpai by the double doors to leave. Mori-senpai nodded in agreement with his unreadable expression.

For a second I watched the large, kind grin on my senpai's face. I quickly mirrored it slightly, smiling thoughtfully and nodding with more confidence. In their own way, everyone was supporting me to "do my best", even if it seemed it was in ways that seemed unexpected. Tamaki-senpai hated to admit it, but whenever I did stand close to Hikaru, he would sulk and say we shouldn't _look_ like lovers in public. I figured, maybe I was reading into it too much, but the fact he could see us in our roles, was his way of supporting us.

After my senpai's left, I walked down to the drama auditorium, walking with more confidence as the kind words everyone told me voiced themselves in my head. I felt more certain I could do my best, no matter how nervous I felt.


	10. Day Before the Performance

**Author's Notes: **Yay! Another update! I was going to write the performance itself this time, but I thought of something that I hope will make you smile and perhaps make you a little bit sad at the same time. I figured it was time to do a bit more character development. I still want to hear your thoughts on my character's romantic interests and who you think they should be. Who knows? It may effect my choice? I have written down ideas for most of the hosts. I also would love to hear your thoughts generally. It really helps to know what you think I need to improve, and what parts you really like so I can create a really good quality piece of writing.

* * *

At the Donaldson household residence, just before midday, the family was active as the host club boys arrived at the front door of the address that the Hitachiin twins had managed to find. The house was unexpectedly bigger than they expected, especially to Tamaki's expectations. The house was of reasonable size for the five-person household in sheltered. The majority of the family was out that Sunday afternoon, but the two that remained were the youngest, and middle aged members of the household.

At the front door, the hosts were greeted by a familiar face, although not one they expected. The tanned skinned boy with dark brown curly locks and chocolate coloured eyes stared at each of the boys in turn before grinning.

"You're here to see my onee-san, right?" he asked, knowing the answer. He stepped aside and gestured with an arm for them to come in. "Our house is Western styled, so you don't need to take off your shoes or wear indoor shoes or anything that you're probably used to."

The hosts pardoned their intrusions and stepped inside the open living room. First by Tamaki, Kyouya and the twins, followed by Honey and Mori who took more time to take in their surroundings. A TV sat in one corner, with two sofas angled to face it with a large mahogany coffee table in the centre of a dark floral patterned rug. The floor was a wood panel.

"Where is Hollie-chan?" Honey-senpai quickly asked as he turned around with Usa-chan in his arms to face the boy who was a bit taller than him.

"She went shopping with Mum earlier, but she'll be back anytime soon," Jack answered as he closed the front door.

Jack entertained the hosts for a while as he offered them the opportunity to sit down on the sofas and made them English tea. He talked to them about Hollie's life at her old school, and what kinds of friends she had and what kind of boys had confessed to her, not that she often realised. He knew what the boys wanted to hear, and happily answered their questions with a smirk. After half an hour, the group was surprised once again. They expected their fellow club member to return, and from the silhouette of dark brunette hair and a petite figure, they all assumed it was who they had waited to see. But the woman who turned around was different. Similar but different, this woman had the same colour hair, eyes and the same height, but this woman caught the twins by surprise.

"S-sensei," they said in a quiet murmur as they stated what they saw.

Stood just in front of the porch way, the woman stared at the group of boys, pulling a pair of glasses off her face and perching them on her head neatly in her hair. She smiled with a confident, welcoming fashion, and walked towards the group of boys. She held in both hands plastic shopping bags with a few small High Street names.

"Ahh, Mum, you're home then," Jack said as he came back from the kitchen, clapping non-existent dust off his hands as he came back from putting teacups away. "Where's Hollie?"

"She had a few things to do, so she said to go home ahead of her," the woman said, then turning her attention back to the boys. The twins were now watching more calmly. "I guess it can't be hidden now."

"You're our English teacher? Honestly and truly?" the twins asked in unison.

She nodded with a smile.

"So when people teased Hollie when she first came to Ouran about being so similar to you, they were right that you were related?" Kaoru asked.

She nodded again.

"At school I'm your teacher, but outside of school you can call me Sarah," the woman proceeded to say, as the boys watched her. "And it's true: I'm the new English language teacher at Ouran."

"But wouldn't they find it unusual to have a parent and child relationship so close in the school?" Honey then asked, squeezing Usa-chan tighter.

"Especially as you're her English teacher as well," the twins then added, leaning closer with curiosity.

"I can understand the confusion and why you would think that," the petite woman said, adjust strands of her fringe to see more clearly. "But it's a part of a deal that allows Hollie and her brothers to have an education at Ouran Academy."

"Brothers?" Tamaki asked this time, with a similarly curious expression as the twins.

This time it was Kyouya who spoke, sighing slightly, pushing his glasses up his nose by the rims. But as he was about to speak, a taller young man, with equally tanned skin as Jack and matching hair and eyes, walked through from the kitchen. He wore a beanie hat covering most of his hair, with baggy black jeans and a loose t-shirt. He was the same age as the president and the vice president.

"Is Hollie back with the groceries yet?" the boy asked grumpily with a deep voice.

Kyouya this time took his moment to speak. "Hollie's and Jack's older brother, Jordan, is in class 2-B, but is in your gym class, Tamaki."

Staring in equal wonder as they had at Hollie's Mum, the hosts, excluding Kyouya, looked at the boy in awe. They looked between Jack and Jordan: the similarities were obvious, similar skin complexion, eye colour, and broadening shoulders, made it easy to tell they were related. But their sister was physically very different: she was paler in complexion, and more petite like her mother, with hazel eyes with hints of green that made them significantly different from her brothers.

"I've brought the groceries back with me, but Hollie had other errands to do," Sarah explained once again to the seventeen year old.

With a hmph, Jordan excused himself as the hosts watched him, grabbing one of the shopping bags and pulling out one of the bottles of cola before stopping by the doorway to leave. He looked over his shoulder at them, looked at each of the boys in turn, prolonging looks at Kyouya and Kaoru, before walking off, the snapping plastic and an escape of gas could be heard just over the sound of soft footsteps.

"That was my stepson, my husband's son from his first marriage," Sarah quickly explained. "Don't expect to see much more of him for today."

"Jordan doesn't particularly like Hollie," Jack explained.

"Why not? Hollie-chan is super cute and nice when you get to know her," Honey quickly asked.

"We're not really sure, but they just never got along," Jack answered, shrugging casually.

Honey just sat back with a small 'hmm', hugging Usa-chan even tighter with a sympathetic and thoughtful look in his eyes.

"But it's fine," Sarah quickly said with a smile and matching positive tone. The boys all looked her with a surprised expression. "Hollie's always known that getting along with him was impossible. She doesn't mind and doesn't let it bother her. Besides, I'm sure there are other things on her mind that are more important."

The boys studied her expression before eventually nodding. After a brief silence, one particular host, Kyouya, quickly turned his attention to the fireplace in the wall next to the TV where framed photos sat on the mantle. On the other side, a small vertical DVD case stood turned into the centre of the room with one more photo frame. Sarah noticed and smiled thoughtfully before looking back at the group again.

"While Hollie isn't home, feel free to look at anything you'd like," she said with an encouraging smile.

"While she's not home?" Tamaki proceeded to ask.

"Because if she sees you looking at them, she'll probably get embarrassed," Sarah proceeded to say with a smirk.

Kaoru and Kyouya almost immediately took their chance to look at the photos, followed by Hikaru at Kaoru's side, Tamaki eagerly taking his turn, and Honey and Mori soon followed. Jack brought through a cup of tea to his Mum, which she took with a grin, and perched on the arm of the sofa closest to her, watching the curious expressions and listening to their mumbled questions.

As the boys picked up the photo frames and admired the captured moments of Hollie's childhood, Sarah watched quietly as she noticed the different relationships about her daughter's friends unfold without even confirming their names. She knew who each of them were: she taught all but two of them. She watched as the boys asked each other hypothetical questions, scanning the photos from right to left. She could see that the boys were eager to get to know the girl that was her daughter. But two or three of them made her curious. Watching one of the twins, she watched the excited expression of the redhead with the parting on the right. She was sure that boy was Kaoru. She had observed the twins in passing as she taught, and on occasions when she took advantage of the chance to allow the class to work practically and away from their desks, that particular boy was eager to choose Hollie as his work partner.

Her eyes then wandered to the dark haired boy she didn't teach. Watching him adjust his glasses, she watched as his eyes looked over the pictures longer than his classmates and the smaller boy who held the rabbit plushie. He held the photo frame more delicately than most of the others, and when he placed them down, he seemed to take care and didn't take his eyes off the photo until he saw it stood secure from slipping or falling and breaking.

She was sure these two boys were ones that she could begin to read through. But she then shifted her attention to the tallest man. His expression remained blank, and he only took his eyes off the photos as the small blonde-haired boy took his attention to look at another. He never spoke, and stood at the back of the crowd, but he studied the photos contently.

"Who's this with her?" Honey then asked, turning the photo to face her, pointing a finger at two boys who stood in a collective pose with Hollie. The two boys were smiling, and a shy, reserved Hollie stared back at the camera with a small smile with slightly flushed cheeks.

The hosts then gathered around him and stared at the photo. The sudden conclusions from the photos confirmed the woman's thoughts. Although they tried to hide it, Kaoru's expression dampened for a moment, before forcing the same expression he had before. Kyouya seemed in more control, but he adjusted his glasses more firmly this time, and leaned closer over his senpai's shoulder than Tamaki, who looked with a more innocent and curious expression.

"Those two boys, when Hollie was eleven and twelve years old, were her only friends," Sarah answered, her expression less positive than before as memories she would rather have forgotten came back. Most of the boys looked at her, but two of them continued to stare at the photo. "When she first started secondary school, Hollie was bullied by her classmates. She went to a school where it had a rough atmosphere and the students had very deprived backgrounds. Hollie's always been an intelligent girl, and the students automatically assumed she was an easy target. But those two boys were the only people at first to talk to her and keep her company. The girls didn't like her, and most of the boys didn't care to talk to her. The girls often abused her and called her names, and the boys just shoved her side."

The boys stared at the photo again with saddened expressions in silence. Sarah watched their expressions for a moment. After another minute, Tamaki then looked up and walked over to the photo in the centre of the mantle and held it in both of his hands.

"But in most of these photos, Hollie is in photos with a girl. Why isn't she in that photo?" Tamaki asked, looking between the photo in his hands and the one that his friends stood around.

"Because that girl didn't feel it was worth her time to be her friend any more," Sarah simply stated, her tone and expression bitter.

This time all of the boys looked at her agape with signs of nervousness. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Sarah then cleared her throat and pulled together a lighter expression.

"That girl was Hollie's best friend from her primary school. They met when Hollie entered Year Three. Hollie's class was conjoined with that girls due to lack of teaching staff, so even though that girl is a year older than her, they were able to spend a lot of time together," Sarah explained.

"So what happened?" Honey asked, his expression soft and unusually nervousness.

"What Hollie didn't know at the time was that when the girl approached her to become friends, she had an ulterior motive that you wouldn't expect children to have. She aimed to become more popular among her classmates, at whatever price is caused Hollie," Sarah said, breathing more heavily. They stared at her questioningly; this kind of behaviour to an extent was normal. "Hollie would normally question someone's behaviour if it was at all unusual. But Hollie for the first three years of her school life had no friends at all due to her lack of self-confidence that she had at the time. Because of this, Hollie didn't dare to question why she approached her and asked her to be friends. She was too happy that someone wanted to talk to her at all that she didn't want to dare risk pushing them away."

She paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts.

"Up until Hollie entered her last year of primary school, Hollie was extremely happy. She went to all sorts of places and did all sorts of things with that girl. She became more confident and became friends with her classmates. She was happier at home: she smiled more and more every day, and it showed in her health. But during the summer break before her last year of primary school, when her friend had finished school, she arranged to meet up with that girl again before she left to go to a boarding school her Dad taught at. That girl lost her patience. She finally made it clear how she really felt about her 'friendship' with Hollie," Sarah paused once more, sucking in a breath to compose herself. "She shouted at Hollie how much she hated her. She shouted in the middle of a public street in the middle of town how much she hated Hollie, and made it clear why. She labelled all of Hollie's imperfections and left Hollie alone in the middle of a crowd to deal with what had been said to her."

The boys stared at the photo Tamaki held in his hands, and studied the innocent, playful smile on their club member's face. They looked back at the shy expression, and it was clear she had been forcing a smile.

"Yet, Hollie never cried about it. Not on that day, or any day after. She just refused to let people close to her again. It was a blessing to us that those boys were able to get even a curious face out of her. Even so, she hasn't smiled honestly since then," Sarah said with a damp monotone.

"I'm not so sure," Jack interrupted. Everyone turned to look at him with a surprised expression. Leaning on the back of the sofa, Jack forced a comforting smile. "I don't see Hollie much around school, but before Hollie knew I was there one time, she seemed to be truly enjoying herself when she was helping out with your club activities."

His mum watched the grin on her son's face, before smiling warmly back. "Is that so? Then I'm right, I really do owe you all a lot of thanks. You've really taken care of her," she proceeded to say, turning her attention to the group of boys who were pre-occupied in the boy's words. They eventually turned to look at her, and Tamaki placed the photo back on the mantle before stepping back by the group about to gesture and speak.

Clutching the plastic bags of extra groceries and much needed jumpers, I dropped one by my feet as I turned the front door handle to the house. Pushing the door open with a swift nudge with my waist, I retrieved the other bag and stepped inside, closing the door shut with my foot. Looking up, the front room was strangely full with company I did not expect to find.

Correction: I did not expect to see them today.

In the middle of the living room, the entire host club stood in a huddle around Honey-senpai, who looked like he was holding one of the many photo frames that Mum insisted on putting out in the most public room of our house.

Frozen in place, I dropped the shopping bags as I lost control in my hands, gulping as I tried to figure out how to appropriately respond to the sight before me. After a moment, I breathed out heavily and looked at my mum and brother who proceeded to greet me:

"Let me take those bags," Mum said chirpily with a hint at a smirk in her smile. I knew Mum had been telling stories again.

Unbuttoning my coat, the hosts slowly parted from their huddle and Honey-senpai placed the photo back in its place on the DVD stand. Hanging my coat on a peg on the left wall by the door just next to me, I looked at them expectantly.

I was about to asked just why they were here, but Mum came back from the kitchen quickly with the shopping bags packed away.

"Hollie, I'm surprised you took so long. You're performing tomorrow afternoon for your drama class, right?" Mum asked. I nodded somewhat mechanically. "It's nice your friends came by to see you. You've been quite nervous the past few days."

"I… I suppose so," I admitted, rubbing my forehead as I took a seat next to Mum on the sofa as she sat on the arm with her legs crossed.

The hosts each took a seat on the sofas. It was a tight squeeze but everyone fit just about. Jack sat on the floor in the space between the coffee table and the front door, with Honey-senpai next to him near the kitchen door. Mori-senpai sat next to me on my right –the closest seat to Honey-senpai-, with Kyouya-senpai sat next to him. Tamaki-senpai and the twins sat on the other sofa. Hikaru still refused to make eye contact with me.

Tomorrow was our only day that we performed our Shakespeare piece, and we spent most of yesterday doing dress rehearsal. Today we were given the day off so everyone could rest up before our final rehearsal time tomorrow morning before the "big one". Hikaru spent even less time around me when we weren't rehearsing on stage. I assumed it was performance-nerves, but Kaoru wasn't avoiding me so I was unsure what to think. If anything, Kaoru was being more supportive than I expected him to be: whenever he had the chance he was trying to keep my nerves down and keep me in a good mood.

I looked back at Mum who sipped her tea, and then at my brother who grinned cheekily at me. I turned my attention back to the hosts with a serious expression.

"What did you all talk about?" I asked, trying to maintain a calm tone, though I knew my irritation showed.

"Just about how you're an emotional failure and can't do anything for yourself," a deep voice said from behind. I couldn't hide my irritation any more.

"I didn't ask you," I growled, turning to face my stupid half brother Jordan. He shrugged at me arrogantly.

Although Jordan was my half brother, he was the son from my Dad's first marriage, and my parents quickly married as soon as Dad's previous marriage ended. It was because of this that I always felt Jordan hated me. We weren't really related in any real way. We have the same Dad, but it didn't feel that way since I barely inherited any obvious genes from him: I was practically my mother's clone.

I hoped Jordan would just go back to his room and play video games, but for the rest of the afternoon, we argued slyly back and forth as I tried my best not to encourage the hosts to visit the house again. Though it didn't stop Mum from sharing more embarrassing stories about my childhood.


	11. The Performance At Last

**Author's Notes: **Another update! This took a very long time to write, and I hope it's worth it. I'm in my second year of sixth form, with resits and coursework deadlines, so updates will be even more rare. But, on the bright side, I hope this entertains you until the next one. Keep smiling, okay?

* * *

Walking past the large fountains on either side of the front of school, my footsteps echoed. Each step I took, I could hear the tapping of my heel-toe pattern as I walked. It was the only thing I could hear. But I knew I wasn't on my own. In small pockets of pairs or threes, other students made their own way to morning homeroom session. But for some of us, that wasn't our first destination for the day. Instead of heading up to homeroom and passing Tamaki-senpai and Kyouya-senpai who would normally be stood outside talking to their classmates, and Tamaki-senpai would usually notice me with Haruhi and grin eagerly between us before sharing a chirpy good morning. Meanwhile, Kyouya-senpai would keep his eyes fixed on me and rarely spoke to either of us as we passed. But instead, I walked past the left side of the main building to the drama auditorium, clutching my oversized coat as I walked. Outside, my hands shivered as I grabbed the door handle before taking a deep breath and sneaking inside where the warm air greeted me.

I turned around slowly as I took a few moments to let my cold body warm up to a normal temperature. Looking around, I took in the sight that was going to be my base for the entire day. In front of me rows upon rows of high-class theatre seats stood facing to the right. All of them were empty but a few on the front row where my drama teacher stood consulting a few of my classmates, before they ran off to different areas of the stage behind them. The stage itself was a large proscenium stage with large curtains above and around the side of the stage.

Tugging the buttons of my coat off, I walked down the right hand side of the large room. Barely a few rows from the end and I could hear my teacher calling my name, drawing the attention of the students who were rushing to and from areas of the stage, or adjusting parts of the set.

"Hollie-san, now that you're here, we'll begin the technical rehearsal. The rest of the day will then be a case of adjusting any parts of the technical crew's scripts if we have any mistakes. The costume and design crew will have the actor's dressed shortly afterwards and we'll run through the key scenes for a dress and technical rehearsal," my teacher said as she walked up to me, flicking through pages of a script with scribbles all over the numerous pages she turned. I nodded as she spoke, and turned my body towards the closest set of steps to walk up to the stage.

Stood off stage, I watched the priest take his place on the far right of the stage with the spotlight opening on him. He soon began speaking his dialogue. In my mind as I watched, I ran through the scenes in my head: the order and the lines as I watched the following scene unfold.

As the rehearsal continued, my nerves began to ease as everyone, both actor and production team, began to relax as everyone became more focused. The performance became more and more natural. Even with scenes with Hikaru, when he ran his hands across my face during Romeo and Juliet's first morning as lovers, it felt almost completely natural. But something felt amiss. It wasn't always obvious, but at times I could see Hikaru's lips quiver and his hands shook uncontrollably at times as I spoke my lines and he waited for his next cue. Most of the time, Hikaru handled the scene calmly, and I was the one who was nervous.

Does Hikaru actually suffer stage fright?

I put the thought to the back of my mind. Hikaru often behaved intimately with his brother in front of large crowds of people and didn't express any signs of nervousness. But I pressed on with the rehearsal, and when the curtain finally fell on the last scene, those of the costume team who acted as our audience applauded and all the remaining actor's on stage from the final scene relaxed and left their final positions.

After sitting myself up with Hikaru on the large block covered in a white cloth, I gave him a reassuring smile before turning my attention back to my teacher who didn't leave a moment to walk on to the stage and begin ordering students about to make the final touches for the production.

Our teacher gave Hikaru and I a "well-done" and urged us to go to our dressing rooms to relax, and we did so obediently. In my dressing room, I sat on a single deck chair facing a large wall with mirrors facing me, and a desk in front of me spanning the wall with various pots and containers of stage make-up and in the reflection of the mirror rails on wheels with my different costumes hung waiting for their turn to be worn. Near me on the desk, I grabbed a bottle of water, turning the plastic cap before taking short nervous sips as the performance-rush began to fade.

"Are you decent?" a voice asked after a few minutes. My bottle was just over half empty.

"Yea," I shouted back, my head still tucked low, not looking at the door.

I heard the handle turn and the sound of the door opening behind me. In the reflection through a curtain of my hair, I watched Kaoru walk up behind me grabbing another deck chair from the corner of the room. He placed the chair just next to and behind mine and leant against the back of my chair, looking at me through the reflection of the mirror.

"Nerves starting to settle in?" Kaoru asked in a soft voice, still watching me in the mirror. I nodded, the lengths of my hair bouncing and the sound of water dripping as the bottle moved where the cap was still pressed against my lips. Kaoru breathed out with what was probably a smile that followed. "Your performance earlier was really good. They're always really good."

I waited for a moment before deciding on my response. I planned on staying quiet and just focus on staying calm, but I ended up smiling.

"Thanks," I murmured against the mouth of the bottle.

Kaoru's breathing became louder as he laughed. "You have nothing to worry about."

"You should tell Hikaru that," I murmured more loudly. This time, I looked over my left shoulder at him, adjusting my body so my left arm was leaning against the fabric of the deck chair, my arm slightly touching Kaoru's as he still leant against my chair.

Kaoru's expression this time was filled with more surprise. He smiled reassuringly at me. "Hikaru doesn't get stage fright though. He-"

He stopped talking as a vibrating in his blazer pocket distracted us both. Pulling his mobile out of his pocket, Kaoru flipped his phone open before reading a message for a few moments. He grinned, and texted a reply before snapping it shut.

"Kyouya-senpai says to do our best," Kaoru said looking back at me. "He's strangely supportive today, don't you think?"

"Well we are representing the host club after all. We can't make the club look bad," I said, as Kyouya-senpai's word replayed in my head. _There was no way there was any emotional intentions behind those words._

"Do you think that's the only thing going on in his head?" Kaoru asked. Puzzled, I stared at him. He didn't wait for me to respond, he just smiled slightly before tucking his mobile back in his pocket.

"You know you said Hikaru doesn't get stage fright?" I asked.

"That's right."

"Well, before hand in one of the club meetings you said Hikaru wasn't ignoring me outside of rehearsals, but he was just nervous. Doesn't that mean he gets nervous before performing?" I continued.

Kaoru stared at me with the same expression of shock as before. It took a moment before he responded any further, and when he did, he just looked away from me.

"Hikaru is nervous, but it's not the stage fright that's bothering him," Kaoru finally answered.

"What do you-"

"Hollie, it's time to get changed into your first costume for the dress rehearsal!" a female voice called from around the door. Kaoru and I both turned to look, and one of the girls from the costume team peered from around the doorframe with an apologetic smile.

"I'll leave you two to it," Kaoru said, smiling reassuringly, squeezing my arm briefly before leaving with his head tucked low.

When Kaoru had left the room, two girls followed in, the girl who interrupted us first, followed by another girl. The first helped me change clothes while the removed my first costume -a pale cream night dress- from it's plastic covering.

When I was changed, the dress rehearsal took place, which took the majority of the afternoon. It was successful, with very few mistakes, and all the technical errors from the first rehearsal had otherwise been fixed.

Sitting in my dressing room in my first costume, I waited for the whoever was going to style my hair for the first scene. The past hour everyone ate and early dinner; the play began at half four. I ate quickly and excused myself for some privacy. Fiddling with the plastic cap of the water bottle from earlier, my fingers shook violently, and my lips ached as I bit hard to control my breathing. Every now and then, a hand would quickly caress through my hair in a strong jitter.

"Hollie?" a soft familiar voice called. I looked at my guest in the reflection of the mirror. I didn't bother to fake a smile. "It's time to get your hair ready for your first scene."

Kaoru grabbed the chair he abandoned from earlier and adjusted it so he sat directly behind me. Grabbing a selection of hair brushes and hair bands, he began to fashion my hair: leaving my fringe loose with some of the longer layers shaping my round face, he pulled some of the longer lengths and tied into a messy -but I admit very pretty looking- bun with strands fraying to look like an elegant but first-thing-in-the-morning look. As he pulled gently and brushed my hair, my shoulders began to relax as the nerve endings on the back of my head eased. I could feel my shoulders slouch slightly.

"It's strange," I began to say, looking at Kaoru's expression in the mirror; the deep amount of focus, yet strangely nervous.

"What is?" Kaoru followed to ask, exchanging eye contact briefly.

"Why are you so nervous? For Hikaru?" I continued.

"I suppose so," Kaoru answered, this time not looking at me.

"Hikaru will be fine, he's a great performer," I said.

"Hikaru doesn't get stage fright," Kaoru said with a semi-monotonous tone.

"But isn't there one scene we've rehearsed but entirely fully?" I said. Kaoru watched my expression. I cleared my throat. "The kiss scene when Romeo and Juliet first meet."

Kaoru's expression froze. After a moment, he looked at me with a smile.

"I-I'm sure it'll be fine," Kaoru answered, finishing as he reached around me to put the brushes back on the worktop I was sat at.

"Are you nervous for Hikaru to give his first kiss away?" I asked. Kaoru didn't respond. "It'll be fine. I have been kissed either, but I can't imagine how it could go wrong."

Kaoru's expression fell for a moment, before reaching his arms around my shoulders and holding me.

"_Something like that_," Kaoru answered, closing his eyes.

I assumed this was his way of relieving his nerves. My face became warm as his body heat overwhelmed mine. Squeezing one of his hands, I closed my eyes. I desperately hoped the performance would go well, not just for the sake of the host club's reputation, but for all the actor's, the production team, and for the audience.

As my thoughts wondered, we were soon interrupted by knocking on the door. Kaoru, slightly flustered, pardoned himself and answered the door for me as I regained my thoughts. When Kaoru had left with a smile shared through the reflection of the mirror, a tall figure stepped through the small gap where the door was open. Looking over my shoulder, someone who I didn't expect to see stared at me as I rose from my seat.

"Kyouya-senpai," I said, my breath slightly caught.

"Just stopping by to remind you to do your best," Kyouya-senpai said, watching me.

"Umm, Kaoru mentioned that you had texted him that," I mumbled. I felt slightly embarrassed being seen in a night dress, especially in front of my senpai.

"I suppose you could say this time it's slightly more… _personal," Kyouya-senpai with a the beginnings of a cunning grin._

_Ignoring the grin, I just smiled._

"_Thank you, Kyouya-senpai," I answered still smiling._

_For a moment, I was sure Kyouya-senpai's calm expression betrayed him; a slightly more surprised expression replaced it for a short second before grinning cunningly again._

"_For what it's worth, I'm sure you will perform to the best of your ability," Kyouya-senpai then said, breaking the silence._

"_Umm, I'll do my best," I mumbled more shyly. My face felt suddenly warmer, and my hands began to shake as I nervously pressed my hands against my lips, the plastic cap pressing against the palms of my hands._

"_I should go, Tamaki is waiting for the production to start. He's barely sat still all day," Kyouya said, excusing himself._

_For a moment I stood quietly as Kyouya-senpai's and Kaoru's words ran through my head. What did Kaoru mean? What could Hikaru be nervous about? And why would Kyouya-senpai turn up so suddenly? The questions ran through my head, and when the girl Hikari-san who I had become friend with came to summon me for my first scene about twenty minutes later, she hugged me briefly before ushering me on stage._

_As the first scene between Juliet and her mother's proposal for Juliet to marry Paris finished, I quickly changed into a pretty white party dress and walked on stage as Romeo searched through the Capulet's mansion avoiding being noticed as a Montague. The scene played through and after excusing myself from parent's company as they searched Paris for among the many dancing guests, the moment where I notice Romeo was coming up._

_As I dodged the numerous dancers, my eyes fell upon Hikaru and his eyes fell upon me as we froze in the back middle area of the stage. The dancers continued to dance gracefully, and mirroring each other, Romeo and I looked around the dancers who blocked our views of each other. As we drew closer, our expressions turned to those of innocent infatuated smiles. We were almost at reach of each other's fingertips when on cue, my nurse broke our love-struck gazes and pulled me away, and as she led me back down stage to my parents where Paris looked for me with eagerness, she explained the man's true identity._

"_A Montague?" I questioned. I broke free of her grip. "The man is the son of a Montague, my family's sworn enemy?"_

"_Yes," the nurse answered, ushering me to straighten up as she reminded me that Paris wanted to see me._

_Doing as I was told, my parents handed me over to Paris as he invited me to dance. As a woman should, I accepted his invitation and we danced around the front of the stage for my parents to see, but not without Romeo watching and trying to steal my attention at the same time. For the audience to see, I returned Romeo's looks with shy smiles, but presenting my slight reservations as I reminded myself that he was a Montague._

_The play continued, and I sat behind a white curtain on a rostra slightly risen above the main stage, prepared for my balcony scene. Romeo on the main stage below, presented his monologue, declaring that despite knowing I was a Capulet -and a sworn enemy of his family's- he didn't care, and that he longed to see my face, even just once more._

_I began my monologue, pushing the curtain aside to walk onto the rostra in front of the audience, playing with locks of my hair. Romeo, hiding behind a pillar, listened as I spoke my thoughts, wishing to see him once more. I stepped down onto the main stage with bare feet. Dreamily, with a sweet smile, I stepped further along the stage, knowing as the actor, that Romeo was now following silently behind me trying to listen to my words. Turning around to return towards my bedroom, I responded with shock almost tripping as the man's presence startled me. Romeo catching me in his arms, held me tightly as my hands squeezed against his clothes to balance myself. In that moment, the lighting adjusted to dim and focus the light on us._

_We were moments away from kissing._

_Our faces drew closer, our lips nearly touching. As we were about to kiss, the stage fell into darkness. Holding my position, the audience fell into confusion. I could hear the whispers from the front row of seats._

"_Hollie, what do we do?" Hikaru whispered. "Do we actually kiss?"_

"_We don't have to," I answered in a whisper._

"_What do you mean?" Hikaru questioned, his hands beginning to shake._

"_Keep your head positioned as it is," I whispered, turning my head to an angle. "When you hear the lights come on, move your head away as if we did kiss."_

_We waited nervously. After a few minutes, the slight buzz from the lights echoed around and above us, and the light soon followed. Doing as I said, we both moved our heads away._

_Breaking away shyly, I protested that he shouldn't have kissed me: being the enemy of my family, he has stained my lips._

"_Then let me give back what was not mine to take," Romeo teased, pulling me closer again to kiss once me more. Softly, like the script described, I smiled and pulled my face away, but cupping his face again so we stared deeply into each other._

_The play continued to play itself out, and we were grateful that no more technical glitches interrupted our play further. The play finally closed as the heads of the two families promised to build statues of their lost child in memory of their loss, and decide to build a closer bond in their memory and never fight again._

_When the curtains fell for the final time, the audience's loud applaud echoed around the stage. But it was soon lost as the actor's silently sat up. Grinning, I smiled at everyone. Hikaru, sitting up beside me, wrapped his arm around my shoulder with a proud grin._

"_That couldn't have been better if we tried," he said grinning. "You really pulled it off, Hollie."_

"_We both did," I answered._

_The audience soon left, and we were left to celebrate our performance with performance-euphoria. Everyone gathered around us in the centre of the stage._

"_You all did wonderfully," our teacher praised._

"_It was so moving watching you all," some of the production team said, quickly agreeing with each other. "You're all great actors."_

"_It's not just us actor's that should be praised," I said, looking at everyone. Everyone fell silent. "Sure, the audience pays attention to the actor's performing the script, but also everyone who put it together: the technical side, the costume department, everyone. Everyone's contributions; be it obvious, all contributed to our performance, and had an impact and also affected the audience's response."_

"_Hollie's right," Kaoru said, attracting everyone's attention. "We all did amazingly, and although there was a technical fault, the performance kept going anyway."_

_Smiling, everyone then broke into pockets of discussion, exchanging excited hugs and smiles. Retreating to my dressing room, I planned on getting changed before anything else._

_Changing out of my ceremonial clothes, I replaced them with more casual clothes, yawning as some of the adrenaline faded. Pulling the hair bands out of my hair, I turned to the knocking at the door, grinning as Kaoru peered by after telling him I was dressed._

"_You really were amazing," Kaoru said stepping closer. I grinned and thanked him._

"_Not spending time with Hikaru? I was sure you'd want to be with him," I said, turning to look at him._

"_I wanted to see you first." Kaoru grinned._

_I grinned at him, breathing out as more of the adrenaline faded. Grinning wider at me, Kaoru stepped forward slightly._

"_Did you actually kiss Hikaru?"_

"_You saw it right? Of course I didn't," I answered._

"_No, I mean, when the lighting stopped," Kaoru asked, his expression was unusually defensive._

"_No, your brother's lips remain unkissed," I said laughing._

_Rolling his eyes at me, Kaoru and I exchanged laughs. But it quickly turned serious. Puzzled, I stared at the serious expression on his face. Just as I was about to ask him what was wrong, Kaoru wrapped his arms around me tightly._

_I quickly returned the hug, squeezing my hands tightly against his back. My face felt strangely warm. Tucking my head into his chest, I just listened to Kaoru's breathing; it was strangely fast. After a minute he pulled away, his face tucked low, but his cheeks were clearly warm._

"_Hollie, do you have a moment?" a deeper voice asked out of sight._

"_I'll give you some time alone," Kaoru said, quickly walking out of the room before I could say anything._

_Stepping into the room, a tall figure stood in front of me analysing my expression._

"_You certainly did the club proud. Despite the technical difficulties," Kyouya-senpai said, still watching me closely._

"_Thank you," I mumbled. My face had cooled down a bit. Tired, I yawned, rubbing my eyes slightly. "Oh… excuse me."_

_Grinning, Kyouya-senpai walked towards me, closing the door behind him, always looking at me._

"_You shouldn't stretch yourself more than necessary," he said, leaning down resting a hand on my shoulder, his thumb gently pressing against my jaw line, keeping my head positioned for him to see me. This felt strange. My face responded with great heat. For once, the glare on his glasses didn't disguise his eyes. I could see them clearly. It seemed like he was actually concerned, though he still remained difficult to read._

_I smiled shyly and for the first time, I looked Kyouya-senpai straight in the eyes with full confidence. I couldn't explain it, but I was sure that a crack had been made in the barrier that naturally separated us._


	12. After Class

**Author's notes:** So it's been a little while since I've updated. But before anything else, Merry Christmas! I hope this chapter is enjoyable to read, since I thought it was all fluffy and cute, with some really important symbolism and other techniques in there. I put a lot of effort into my writing so I hope you take away as much from my work as much as I put into it. Anyway, I would appreciate any reviews, since it' really encouraging and gives me confidence to keep going.

* * *

A few days following my drama class' performance of Romeo and Juliet, the majority of the high school section of Ouran academy was overwhelmed with an atmosphere of restless excitement. I could barely walk through the grand gates of the school without groups of girls calling my name, or boys whispering amongst each other, their eyes shifting between each other and myself as I would lower my head to avoid being further noticed. It never helped that whenever I passed Tamaki-senpai, who was always closely accompanied by Kyouya-senpai, that he would call my name and grin eagerly at me, with a sparkle in his eyes that said "I'm glad Hikaru didn't kiss my precious daughter".

The largest group in that majority of restless students were fans of Hikaru and Kaoru, and the rest were inevitably customers of the host club who didn't want to miss the chance to see the performance. There was a tiny –and I mean tiny- number of boys from outside the invisible hormone-powered barrier that was the host club clientele that also expressed interest in the performance (for reasons, no matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn't understand). These boys were members of the creative writing club or the drama club. This was according to Kyouya-senpai who loved to remind me about it. Kyouya-senpai explained to me that the creative writing club probably followed my performance as fellow writers who were giving moral support, and the drama club were eager to see what I was made of; both as the only female member of the host club (to their knowledge), and as a 'commoner' who boldly took to the stage, performing to an audience of sons and daughters with remarkably powerful and influential parents.

Despite the fuss that hung around every corridor, classroom and also the cafeteria (which I consciously avoided more than usual, eating lunch with Haruhi in the classroom like always), and there was little I could do about it, except ignore it to the best of my ability. Fuss was something I had learnt to deal with in the past anyway, but it wasn't an issue I liked to look back on.

At the end of the day, I stood in front of my easel with my pencils scattered to my right across the wooden paint-stained desk , my mind wrapped intensely on my art project that was due to be finished by the end of the week. It was the end of the lesson, and I refused to leave for the host club meeting until I had finished the shading of a particular section of my piece. Hikaru had already left to go to the club room, and judging by the shuffling of feet in the corner by my desk, Kaoru had also decided to stay for a little while longer as well. I confirmed this, glancing at my table, Kaoru stood a few feet away from his that was next to mine, holding a sketch pad open wide in front of him. He seemed fixated by whoevers pad it was. Deciding to ignore it, I returned my focus to my project, gently pressing my pencil against the paper and continuing my work.

It didn't take long to finish the section, and after a few minutes, I placed the pencil on the desk with the others, and breathed out an exhausted but satisfied sigh, smiling to myself at my hard work. I looked back towards Kaoru, ready to tell him I was going to pack up and head to the club room. Like before, he was looking through the same sketch pad, but had reached the end and was looking at the final page. Stood further along the row of tables, the artwork was clearer to my vision, and as I spied at the page Kaoru was looking at, my stomach took a huge turn as it dawned on me whose sketchpad it was.

"No!" I screeched racing around the desk to reach Kaoru as quickly as I could. I regretted that the desks were laid out in a horse-shoe shape around the edges of the room. When I finally reached Kaoru –those few seconds were painfully long- I tried to grab the sketchpad back, though Kaoru dodged me, grinning at me as if he was waiting for my response. "Give my sketchpad back!"

"Why?" Kaoru simply asked, holding my sketchpad in one hand out of my reach as I jumped on my tip-toes to reach it. Why did Kaoru have to be taller than me?

"It's my personal sketchpad! I've never shown anyone my work since I first started drawing in it when I started secondary school," I shouted between moans as I refused to give up getting my sketchpad back from Kaoru's hands.

I reached for the sketchpad a few more times. Kaoru finally gave in, sighing as he lowered his hand. He refused to give it to me, but stood next to me opening the first page so we could both see.

"I can see now where your inspiration came from," Kaoru said softly, his eyes focused on the paper in front of us. "Looking through the pages, I can see the messages in your work."

I looked at him dumbfounded for a moment. It was inevitable that at times I had to share my work in art classes, but no one ever saw anything in my work, just said "oh this is good" or "oh those are really good colours". After a moment when I pulled myself together, Kaoru turned the pages. This one was from Year Nine, halfway through the year when I had just started making friends.

"Compared to the first piece, it's clear how much happier you became," Kaoru commented, the corner of his lips turned into the smallest smile. "Your Mum explained that you had a hard time when you first started high school, but seeing your work, I'm happy that you weren't sad all of the time."

Kaoru continued to turn to the pages. About three quarters of the way in, he stopped on another page, his smile widening further. This page was of the fountain in the main grounds of the academy, and was the first piece I drew when I transferred to the academy.

"This was when you started here, wasn't it?" Kaoru asked.

I nodded shyly. "I-I finished it after a couple of weeks after I joined the host club," I said softly, the process of drawing the picture playing out like a flipbook in my head.

"The colours are amazing; they're really vibrant," Kaoru commented. He flipped between that page and the page before it. "There's quite a change between these ones."

The other page was a sketch of the clouds; it was rough and messy, which I drew on my tiring plane flight to Japan after receiving my results for my exams. I was extremely nervous that day and drew it as a distraction and a calming method. Kaoru then proceeded to flip through each of the pages slowly, stopping finally on the final one. It was much more abstract that the others. A silhouette of a teenage girl's body was coloured in different colours. The head, arm, legs and feet were coloured in green, pink, and blue which faded into each other harmoniously. The torso of the girl was coloured in large conflicting blocks of purple and orange. Bordering those two colours, a thick outline of red separated the conflicting colours from the other harmonising ones. Bordering the red in a fainter, thinner line, a navy blue line supported the red, fading into the other colours at the same time. Watching Kaoru's expression, he seemed most taken away by this one. After a few moments of watching his expression, he looked back at me with a nervous smile.

"I… I like this one," Kaoru mumbled softly. "The girl is you, isn't it?" I nodded slowly, my body slightly tense. I didn't expect anyone to see anything more than some pretty colours. "A-and the colours…" he ran his index finger across the colours, then to my neck. I quickly realised what he meant, pulling the necklace from my neck and opening the charm. The pendant contained the individual pictures of the host club. Each of the hosts had their own background colours. Holding the pendant in my open palm, Kaoru looked between the pendant and the page a few time. "The colours match us… don't they?"

I had never really thought about it, but I could see the connection Kaoru had made. I finished the piece the night of the Romeo and Juliet performance when I got home as a way of calming my thoughts. My mind that night was all over the place, and I just coloured the piece however I wanted to at the time without much conscious thought. I stared at the pendant myself and back at the pages. The green matched Tamaki-senpai's background, as did the pink to Honey-senpai, the blue to Hikaru, the red to Haruhi and the navy blue to Mori-senpai. That was even more true about the colours in the torso: the purple matched Kyouya-senpai's background in the pendant, and the orange matched Kaoru's. My head began to race as I thought about why Kaoru and Kyouya-senpai's colours were conflicting in the middle. My cheek began to burn softly, and my only reaction was to close the pendant, my breathing slightly faster than before. I wasn't sure if Kaoru had noticed this much as well, but regardless, he closed the sketchpad and gave it back to me gently.

"Hollie, I'm really happy that you think so fondly of all us in the host club," Kaoru said softly, his face unusually closes than normal. His upper arm was gently brushed up against mine from where he stood close enough for us to look at the artwork earlier. His expression then turned serious with a small amount of disappointment in his eyes. "I was worried that you would never come to like us. We forced you into the host club, and… and for a little while after, I started to desperately want you to start to like it here… I can only speak for myself, but I really enjoy having you in the host club."

I stared at him for a moment. I could barely breathe as I processed what Kaoru had said. Staring away for a short moment, I pulled my words together in my head, though I couldn't pull my thoughts together with them.

"It's strange… I never really intended to put that kind of message in my piece. I just drew it there in the moment without thinking. And… now that I think about it… Yes, I hated the host club at first. I was tired and exhausted that day when I was forced into the club, and my irritation about it stayed for a little while after. But now…" I gulped, thinking heavily. "But now… I don't feel angry, or irritated, or tired. Now… I'm not sure when it happened, but those feelings disappeared. I didn't notice it, but…" I frowned, then sighed out in defeat. "But now, I enjoy myself every day, no matter how much I get teased, or how much Tamaki-senpai fantasises or does stupid things." I looked up at Kaoru who was smiling softly back at me. I frowned again stubbornly, my lip quivering. I clenched my fists. "I can't believe… I can't believe you guys have managed to get under my skin."

I tried to back away to get my space, my face burning redder with embarrassment. I couldn't believe I said these things out loud or not even realised it beforehand. But, before I could move a few meters away, Kaoru wrapped his arms tightly around me, holding me in place, my pendant and sketchpad stuck in my hands between us. I decided not to budge or fidget. With the pendant still firmly in my head, I wrapped my arm around Kaoru's slim waist as he breathed through my hair over my shoulder. Kaoru held me for a few minutes, breaking away only when the sound of footsteps outside the classroom startled us. Kaoru, looking at me nervously, took the pendant out of my hand and fastened it around my neck before guiding the ornament to rest against the small gap in the collar of my uniform between my collar bones. His other hand rested softly against my neck with his thumb pressed lightly –almost without me noticing at all- against my cheek. Kaoru's face was close again as his red cheeks seemed to radiate heat like mine. Kaoru smiled nervously at me before gesturing to our school work on the desks behind me.

"We… We should probably head to the clubroom before Tono has a chance to get upset with us," Kaoru mumbled, moving away in what seemed to be with some hesitation.

Nodding, I silently gathered my work and put it in my bag. We walked back to the clubroom silently. The only sound was the tapping of the heels of our shoes against the marble tiled floor. Whenever Kaoru opened a door to let me through, I could only smile politely before stepping through, clutching my personal sketchpad to my chest protectively. Arriving at the clubroom, many of the guests had already arrived, and some of the hosts had already began entertaining their customers. Hikaru, naturally, noticed our arrival first and greeted us with a grin, which I assumed was directed mostly at his twin. Kyouya-senpai and the customers he was talking to also noticed afterwards, and gravitated towards us. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai then came by, Honey-senpai grinning cheerfully in his usual manner.

"Ah! Everyone's here now! Kyo-chan also just got back a few minutes ago," Honey-senpai said smiling, holding Usa-chan in his arms. Looking at Kyouya-senpai, I was sure that he seemed more tense and stiff than his usual 'cool' demeanour. It was only subtle, so I didn't bother to question it.

"Hollie-san, did you have art last?" a girl's voice asked over the other voices of girls near us. I recognised this girl's voice. It belonged to Hikari-san from my drama class. She stood closely to Kyouya-senpai in the crowd, but stepped forward to make herself obvious to me.

"Uh, yea," I replied shyly. She grinned back at me, her eyes watching my sketchpad curiously. Her smile turned mischievous. "Is that your work? Can I see?"

Before I could politely refuse, she grabbed the sketchpad and opened the pages for everyone to see, much to my horror. I tried to speak over the crowd of girlish chatter, but no one heard me. I only noticed apologetic and sympathetic smiles from the hosts who had been watching, who later joined in to watch. My expression fell as my embarrassment revealed itself on my face. Kaoru smiled devilishly at me before joining his brother. Kyouya-senpai however, stepped away from the crowd next to me with his folder opened. He scribbled notes like he always did, occasionally his eyes drifting to my embarrassed face.

"You're not going to get your sketchpad back anytime soon," he said as he continued to write. I looked up at him trying to mask my vulnerable expression. He walked away from the doorway where we stood and stopped with his hand resting on the back of a chair. He turned his head so I could just see his expression. He had the smallest, slyest smile on his face. "Though, I don't think you have much to be embarrassed about. Your last page particularly speaks a lot for itself."


	13. I'm Sure I'm Just Tired

**Author's Notes: **So I finally have time to update! I've just finished my January exams yesterday, and because I was so tired yesterday (my last exam was 2 hours and 45 minutes, it felt like forever) I decided to wait until today to update. I've been suffering a huge case of writer's block, and although I haven't yet recovered, this is the best I can do. I do sincerely hope it's enjoyable though.

* * *

Sat cross-legged in bed, I stared at the pages of my sketchpad thoughtfully. I flipped the pages, holding one page between my index finger and my thumb. Every now and then I would turn back to the page I had book-marked with my fingers. I couldn't take my attention off the last page which somehow caught Kaoru's earlier this afternoon. I stared at the page blankly for a moment: it was just another one of my sketches I drew for the sake of drawing. Yet, my left hand, the one not holding the paper, drifted to my neck, holding the pendant of my necklace gently in my fingertips. I looked at the page again. The orange and purple seemed even more striking and eye-catching, than when I had looked just seconds ago. It didn't make sense. Flattening the page open, I took my hand away from the pad and unfastened the necklace, opening the pendant by its tiny fasten, and placing it open beside the sketchpad on the duvet. I looked between them both for a few moments each, repeatedly switching between each item. The pendant no doubt had all of the hosts in their respective colours, I assumed it was their favourite or held some importance to them, but it didn't matter. What caught my eye was the link Kaoru had made between the two conflicting colours in the centre of my sketch: the orange and purple, and who the colours belonged to on my pendant: Kaoru and Kyouya-senpai. I had never noticed it until earlier when Kaoru pointed out.

Was I intentionally saying something in my sketch that I didn't initially realise I was saying?

Of course I wasn't. That's impossible. Isn't it? How can I make a comment about _anything_ without it being obvious to myself first? But, what exactly was I trying to say? Art is a form of expression, after all. So I had to have been trying to say something.

I continued to stare at the page, this time looking at the other colours. I knew now that the host club had made some form of an imprint on me, as much as I hate to admit it. But what did I want to say? I only chose the colours randomly. I didn't plan it. Yet, even Kyouya-senpai said he noticed something from glancing at the piece.

"_Your last page particularly speaks a lot for itself_." His voice and those words echoed through my head repeatedly. My mind began to ache, and my fingers started to clench slightly on the small folds in my duvet. I frowned and clenched my eyes shut. What was I trying to say?

Frustrated, I snatched the pendant off the duvet, closing the locket and fastening it around my neck with a short, irritated sigh. I closed my sketchpad and dragged my feet off the bed, shoving it inside my book bag before seating myself heavily on the side of my bed. My hands raced to my forehead pushing back my fringe and loose strands of hair, my body leant forward with my elbows leaning on my thighs to support myself. I breathed heavily for a few moments before pulling my torso back up, letting my fringe fall messily over my face. A little more calm, although still tense, my hands slowly moved from my lap where they had rested, moving up each arm in a self-comforting gesture. But, as I tried to calm my thoughts, the feeling of Kaoru hugging me recalled itself in my head. It felt so comforting, and Kaoru's kind words soon accompanied the feeling: "_I can only speak for myself, but I really enjoy having you in the host club_." The soft tone of his voice echoed sweetly in my head. I felt almost guilty: I never intended to make friends when arriving at Ouran Academy, yet, within my first day of arriving at the school, a whole group of boys –regardless of their egoist intentions- sucked me into their extra-dimensional world that was their club. Somehow, I've started enjoying it, even if the concept of pleasing girls with fake words irks me and my moral values. And yet, despite being forced into the host club, everyone has become my friends.

_Friends_. Somehow, just thinking the word in my head calmed me down, a small smile creeping onto my lips. It's been so long since I've felt like the word had any real meaning. I closed my eyes gently and repeated the word in my head, the warm feeling in my chest deepening.

A few minutes later, I opened my eyes and the smile disappeared. Back in reality, it was just gone ten o'clock as I glanced at the alarm clock on the right hand side of my bed on the bedside table. My room was quiet and the only sound was the usually unnoticeable sound of water in the radiators and the soft buzz of the light bulb of my desk lamp that also sat on the bedside table with my clock. Sighing, I glanced around my cosy bedroom: my desk had neatly piled text books with my pencil case opened with overflowing pens, pencils and other stationery items that I had used earlier in the evening to do my homework. Along the wall opposite my bed was a modestly sized bookshelf on the left hand side, with fictional books tidily piled against each other in order of genre. On the right hand side faced at a diagonal angle was a square glass cabinet with three wooden dividers to create shelves. On the bottom was a collection of my favourite DVDs and CDs, which like the books were ordered in terms of genre and were piled tidily. On the middle shelf, a few of my irreplaceable teddies sat on display, watching over my room. One was small horse brown horse which my grandparents had given me when I was seven, another was a grey cat which was a bit bigger than the horse, and was one Mum had bought me as a surprise from our weekend away in Ireland a couple of years ago. The last one was a small puppy with dark and light brown patches on its body, which was the smallest and looked the most worn and tired of them: it was a present from when I was first born that Mum and Dad had been given to put in my cot. They were all, for their own reasons, special mementos I couldn't bear to leave behind in England. Along the wall on the other side of the cabinet were a few posters of characters from my favourite novels, adding what little decoration possible, since it was the wall the door was on, so I didn't find it logical to place much furniture on it.

Yawning, I only just realised how tired I was. I sighed to myself; it's because I'm tired that I'm probably over-thinking all of these things. Pulling myself under the covers, I rested my head on my pillow and closed my eyes, smiling to myself that I was just being daft about all of this.


	14. A Stabbing Feeling in my Chest

**Author's Notes:** So, my writer's block hasn't exactly gone away, but I've had another go at writing a new chapter. I hope it's any good. I'm trying to get back into the 'writing vibe' since I have to write the opening for a short story for my English coursework in about a month. I really appreciate all the reviews I've received, and I hope, if you like my story, you'll leave a review to let me know what you like, and generally what you think about my story thus far.

* * *

Sitting up in bed, I rubbed my eyes sleepily. From the corner of my eye on the left, the smallest amount of sunlight shone around the edges of the blind covering my window. I glanced at my alarm clock: 6:30am. Brushing a hand through my bed-head mop of hair, I pulled my feet over the side of the bed, clambering onto my feet in a sleepy stumble. I pulled the duvet over into place, not caring whether it looked tidy. I left my room in the direction of the bathroom: I usually like eating breakfast first, but if I didn't get in the shower now, Jordan would take forever and I would be late for homeroom. Or I would have to go to school smelly. Neither of those situations appealed to me.

I pulled my pyjamas off in a tired gesture, while fighting to control an over-powering yawn, dumping them in the clothes hamper right of the door just next to the shower. I turned the hot tap of the bath and pulled up the round mechanism between the hot and cold tap, moving my body away from the tub as cold water began to run out of the shower head above where I was leaning around the glass shower screen. I waited for a few moments for the water to warm up before climbing in and letting the water run down my body. I washed my hair, using shampoo on the roots of my hair, and conditioner on the ends, and continued with the rest of my shower routine. When I was done, turned the water off and climbed out of the shower, trying to avoid water dripping off my hair onto the tiles. I squeezed my hair into the tub, and wrapped a warm towel that had been warmed up on the radiator around my now cold body. I wrapped a smaller towel around my hair and tucked the end in a gap on the top of my neck so it held itself in place by itself, leaving extra weight on my head.

I got myself dried and dressed in my school uniform in record time, making my way down to the kitchen for breakfast as Jordan left the bathroom himself with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

'Great. Because I really wanted to see that.' I thought to myself, shaking my head in a disapproving fashion, trying to push the image out of my head.

In the kitchen, Mum was stood at one of the kitchen counters by the electric kettle. Upon hearing me enter the room, she smiled over her shoulder at me and opened the cabinet above her head, taking out my favourite coffee mug, which had a purple and white colouring, with a cute flower pattern. She then opened the clear plastic container next to the kettle, taking out a small tea bag and dropping it into my mug.

"Good night sleep?" Mum asked as she did this and as I was grabbing a bowl from a cabinet on the right hand side of her and a box of cereal with it.

"Yea, once I got to sleep," I mumbled, pouring cereal into the bowl. "Don't appreciate Jordan walking around the house almost stark naked first thing in the morning, though. Can't he think to bring what he needs to the bathroom when he goes to have his shower?"

"You know how he is," Mum said, chuckling at my blunt disapproval of my brother. It's not my fault he's an arrogant jerk. She poured the hot water from the boiling kettle and did similarly with the milk, passing the plastic milk carton to me when she finished, which I used to pour into the half full bowl of cereal.

I placed my bowl on the square dining table in the centre of the room, then grabbing a spoon from one of the drawers next to the oven on the far wall from where I had entered the room. I sat myself on a chair where I had placed the bowl and began eating. Mum sat herself opposite me, with a bowl of porridge, placing a cup of tea in front of her, and then pushing mine towards me. I smiled thankfully, pausing in the middle of a mouthful.

We ate our breakfast in silence, occasionally glancing towards the door on the wall on my left side which adjoined to the living room. Jack sleepily came into the kitchen, bidding us good-mornings as he prepared a bowl of cereal for himself, then retreating to the living room to the comfort of one of the sofas, followed shortly by the sound of the Tokyo morning news programme echoing into the room. Mum and I glanced at each other briefly, thinking the same thing: it was a shame that the family only ate around the table together at dinner when my stepdad was home.

My stepdad was a reasonably successful manager of a small but growing financial firm, dealing mainly in bonds and shares of his clients, but also loans and mortgages. He co-owned his company with a childhood friend of his who he had kept in touch with over the years. When there seemed to be a dawning chance of a recession in the UK, they made the agreement it was best to expand their business abroad at that time before a recession could hit and it could be years before the company could expand or there was a chance the company could take significant financial damage. It was agreed that my stepdad would migrate here to Japan and manage their Japanese branch, and his friend would manage their English branch. It was a risky move, but now the recession had hit the UK, the comparatively more stable economy here in Japan meant the business didn't suffer as badly as it could have. However, because the branch here was still young, it meant that John –my stepdad- was often away at meetings, determined to build relations with other businesses and make the company more stable. I knew this made Mum lonely at times. This also meant Jordan was even more of a nuisance to me than usual; his Dad wasn't around to put him in his place. He didn't exactly care what I thought.

Five minutes later, Jordan wandered into the kitchen, and did the same as Jack had done, then sitting next to him on the sofa. Now, the sounds of the news on the TV were being drowned out by Jordan's immature satire of the people on the headlines, and Jack's laughter moments later. When I had finished my breakfast, I stood away from the table and washed my bowl and spoon, before leaving the kitchen to grab my book bag from my bedroom. At my bedroom desk, I opened my book bag and sorted my books appropriately based on the lessons I knew I had today, and my folder with my new story tucked safely inside. In this moment of quiet, I took a moment to sigh and think to myself how nice it would be if today could quieter than yesterday.

Bidding goodbye to Mum as she was packing all of her work into the car, I walked down to the train station, where I had planned to meet Haruhi at the next station over and take the rest of the journey with her. We had initially been taking the bus, but Haruhi's Dad had suggested it would be a faster journey by taking the train, and the journey to the train station was safer in the winter than going to the more isolated bus station when the daylight was shorter and there were dim streetlights in the evenings.

Walking quietly to the train station, it always caught my attention the other students who were commuting to the other local high schools in the area. They seemed like typical teenagers: happy, talking about gossip and boys they fancied, or about tests they hadn't studied for and were going to take soon. Sometimes I would see couples walking together hand in hand, smiling, occasionally exchanging kisses or shy smiles. It made me think how different this was to Ouran Academy. It's not like the students were unhappy –on the contrary, they seemed to lack any knowledge of the hardships of the world outside their large mansions and expensive cars-, but there wasn't the same carefree feeling that the 'commoner' students had. Most students, if not all, were also well prepared for exams, I imagine many were under pressure from their parents to succeed. It also seemed strangely apparent that I never saw happy couples walking around the campus. No sweet kisses, or blissful smiles. It made me think: were these rich aristocratic sons and daughters really that happy? The only romance they seemed to see was the false illusion of affection that the host club gave as its daft yet oddly effective service. Then my thoughts then traced to the hosts themselves. Other than Tamaki-senpai's obvious feelings for Haruhi, were the other hosts thinking about someone special to them? I had somewhat pondered on the idea that maybe Hikaru was beginning to like Haruhi as well: the way he stuck close by to her in between classes and during our free periods, the way whenever all four of us walked around, Kaoru walked next to me, with Hikaru next to him and Haruhi on the other side.

But who were Kaoru and Kyouya-senpai thinking about? Were they thinking about anyone at all? If they were, what was this girl like? Pretty? Kind? Intelligent? I couldn't understand why, but it made my chest tense and ache slightly.

In a shocked, spontaneous jolt in my head, I snapped my mind away from the topic and back to reality. My mind was captivated by this topic for the whole train journey, while was Haruhi simply staring out the window of the train, watching the scenery dart away between the stations we passed. Arriving at our station, Haruhi and I hopped over the gap between the train carriage and the platform, walking through the station and to the main street. Instead of silence, the rest of our walk to school we spent talking about this and that. Anything that would take our minds' off of the thoughts we didn't want to think about.

Walking through the magnificent front gates of the academy, it wasn't long until girls who were also walking towards the main building noticed us walking together and greeted us –or more importantly to them, Haruhi-kun-. Haruhi, polite and somewhat oblivious, smiled and answered their questions as we walked up to our homeroom class, seating herself at her desk, the girls still talking happily. I didn't speak once, knowing I wasn't the one they really wanted to talk to.

Morning classes shortly started, and the morning passed by in what felt like an eternity. I just couldn't motivate myself. I took lengthy notes in all my classes, and listened attentively, but my mind just couldn't find a reason to care. Something in the back of my mind, though I couldn't figure out what, was gnawing at my focus and patience the entire morning.

Morning break arrived at long last, and as the silence was filled with students getting out of their seats to join their friends, I sat back in my chair and slouched slightly with a heavy sigh. My hand rose to my forehead, rubbing a small pressure point where a headache had begun to form just above the corner of one of my eyebrows.

"Hollie-san!" a feminine voice called. Looking over my shoulder, Hikari-san walked cheerily over to my desk with an equally cheerful smile. Her smile disappeared as she looked at me, her forehead creased with concern. "Hollie-san, are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks," I said, sitting up properly. "It's just a small headache. Nothing to worry about."

"As long as you're okay," she said, pulling the chair from the desk in front of mine, and sitting in a lady-like manner opposite me. Her expression then turned serious. "I'm really sorry about yesterday. I honestly didn't know that was your personal sketchbook. I was sure it was your school book."

"Ah! No, it's fine. You didn't know," I said, slightly surprised. I won't deny, I was extremely embarrassed, but it didn't feel as bad as I had reacted. It wasn't as big a tragedy as I expected it to turn out to be.

"I'm relieved you're not mad, Hollie-san. I really am sorry," Hikari-san said, her face calming into a sweet smile, nervously, she brushed a strand of her shoulder-length, curly hair out of her face. After a moment of silence, her face turned a soft shade of pink. "It seemed like Kyouya-sama liked your work… Kyouya-sama seems like the kind of person who would appreciate those kinds of things."

Hikari-san's expression as she spoke subtly became softer and softer; her cheeks increasingly reddening in a delicate manner, and her fingers twiddling nervously by her cheek as she appeared almost entranced in the topic: Kyouya-senpai. It felt strange, I couldn't understand why the aching feeling from before seemed to return. However, this time it was more painful and I struggled not to wince at the pain. But I just smiled at the sweet expression on my friend's face.

'Perhaps there was romance in this school, after all,' I thought, ignoring the stabbing feeling in my chest. Despite the pain, I felt a strange warmth in my heart, watching Hikari-san's content expression.

_Whatever this pain was, it didn't matter more than the happiness of my new friend._


	15. A Strange, Overwhelming Feeling

**Author's Notes:** I have to say, I'm impressed with myself for updating this quickly. I do apologise for the lengthy gaps between updates. But I appreciate that you read my story. It really means a lot to me, especially knowing which parts you like, and which parts you think I should improve. It gives me confidence and motivation knowing that people -besides Ca-chan who is able to tell me anyway- are enjoying this story.

* * *

My lesson after break went by slowly like the others had earlier. I took notes in what felt like a mechanic and repetitive state, and only answered questions when my teacher asked me to. I didn't feel eager enough to volunteer and save my classmates from having to answer. When the lesson did finally end, Hikari-san walked up to my desk with her usual polite smile.

"Hollie-san, would it be okay if you helped me carry some books to my locker? I brought more than I thought I needed for my lessons today," she asked, her hands clasped together in front of her in the typical lady-like manner that the girls at school naturally possessed. I nodded, knowing deep down I was taking on the commoner-servant role, but I lacked any reason not to, and Hikari-san was my friend: there's no harm in helping out a friend.

I stood up from my seat, putting my textbook in my book bag. I followed Hikari-san to her desk a row behind mine next to the window. My desk was on the second to last row, but was on the other side of the room. Kaoru's seat was on my right, with Haruhi's on my left, and Hikaru's on the left of hers. Picking up a pile of around five textbooks, I followed Hikari-san down to the ground floor of the building to the quiet locker room. There were a few in each corner of the building, and were conveniently out of the way so students could come and go as they pleased without there being a large amount of congestion in the main halls to the other classrooms. I stood next to Hikari-san as she opened her locker, and one by one she took the books out of my hands and re-ordered them as she pleased. While waiting for her, I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I was being watching. Looking quickly over my shoulder, I couldn't see anyone. I frowned uncomfortably, leaning slightly to see if anyone was hiding just out of sight behind one of the walls of the corridor leading to the exit. Nothing. I paused for a moment, but looking back at Hikari-san, who at the same time looked back at me with a cheerful smile, urging us to head to our lesson. This time, only with the books that she needed.

Luckily for me, I had art class, one of my favourite lessons. Although Hikari-san wasn't in the same lesson as me, her music class was on the same floor, so we walked together anyway. On the floor we needed to be on, we continued walking along the corridor, catching up to Hikaru, Kaoru and Haruhi. Hikari-san excused herself to go to her lesson, and all four of us politely said goodbye. With Haruhi and myself in the centre of the row we naturally walked in, Hikaru walked alongside her, and Kaoru walked next to me on my left. It was strange, as we continued walking, that strange feeling returned and I found myself not being able to focus on what the others were talking about. It was daft to feel this way. Naturally, everyone else in school were also walking to their own lessons, so why would I feel so insecure?

Walking into the classroom for my next lesson, I shrugged off the feeling and sat in my seat, waiting for our teacher to arrive. Kaoru sat next to me, with Hikaru on the other side. Haruhi had walked off to her own lesson. Unlike my other lessons so far, art class was always perfect for keeping me distracted: my mind was always focused on being creative, that there was never a single moment to feel bored or disinterested. Unfortunately, the lesson seemed to pass in a flash, and although I didn't say a word, I didn't feel the out of place feeling that I had felt earlier.

"Hollie, let's go. We have drama next," Kaoru said, smiling at me. I smiled softly back, nodding gently in response. I got up after packing my things back into my book bag.

Although he didn't say anything else, Kaoru didn't seem quite his usual self for some reason, though I didn't say anything myself, since I couldn't figure out why he didn't seem his usual, mischievous self. Walking along the courtyard to the drama auditorium, I felt that strange feeling of eyes again. This time I was sure I had genuine reason to feel uncomfortable. There was barely anyone around, besides Kaoru and Hikaru, and although I still couldn't see anyone, there were definitely more places to hide. I shivered uncomfortably, but decided not to make a fuss over it. It's not like anything could be done about it anyway. Holding the auditorium door open for me, I smiled politely at Kaoru who held the door open, following Hikaru who had gone ahead. Sitting in seats in the first two rows of the auditorium, our drama lesson focused mostly on theory, which while it was interesting, it wasn't always enough to keep me distracted. Especially at five minutes before the end of the lesson, when that strange feeling disturbed more strongly than ever. I glanced over my shoulder towards the doors, but I couldn't see anything. Those last five minutes felt like the longest few minutes to exist; I could barely sit still, and my gut ached as I was certain I was still being watched. But I made sure not to let it be obvious. When our teacher did finally dismiss us, I stood up almost instantly, in what felt like a relief to the restraint I had put on myself to keep still for what –in my mind- felt like an eternity.

"Hollie-san, you seemed eager to get going," Hikari-san said as she walked over to me, a small giggle escaping her lips.

"Uh, uhm, yea. I guess I'm just really hungry or something," I said, realising as I said it that I was actually really hungry.

"Hehe, well it's lunch break now, so you can have something to eat," she said with another giggle, this time using a hand to cover her mouth as she laughed, her cheeks slightly pink from the heat of the room. I smiled at her and nodded. "Well, have a good lunch break. I'm rehearsing for a bit with the drama club for a play we're putting on for the cultural festival in February."

I nodded with an encouraging smile. And not far behind, other members of the drama club, though I didn't really know any of them personally, walked down the side of the auditorium, many of them holding rolled up scripts in their hands.

I said goodbye to Hikari-san, then walking with Hikaru and Kaoru out of the auditorium. I walked with them so far, though I planned to go up to our homeroom and eat my packed lunch with Haruhi like always. Hikaru and Kaoru always ate in the school's cafeteria. Sat with Haruhi on the window sill of our homeroom classroom, we ate our lunches quietly like always. Like always, there were a few students who would come and go, usually taking something from their desks, before heading down to the cafeteria themselves. It was the quiet atmosphere of the classroom during lunch break, and Haruhi's calm and down-to-Earth company that made being at this school tolerable at the worst of times. Especially since, although the fuss had mostly died down, I still occasionally received unwanted attention from the drama performance.

The rest of the afternoon went by quietly, and the strange feeling didn't replay itself at all. But, sat in the host club meeting before activities started, not even Tamaki-senpai's typical over-dramatic, delirious and just plain crazy suggestions for the club's next cosplay could keep me distracted. I stared at a random spot of the table as my mind uncomfortably raced. I couldn't stop thinking about what it was that made me feel so uneasy. Or rather, I hated not knowing what this 'presence' was.

"Ahh, Hollie, are you okay?" Kaoru asked, leaning over the table next to me so that his face caught my attention. "You've been quiet, well quieter, all day."

The rest of the hosts glanced between us both at this point, while Haruhi nodding and agreeing, commenting that I had barely said anything when we ate lunch together.

"What's wrong, Hollie-chan?" Honey-senpai asked, leaning onto the table like Kaoru, but further as he sat with Mori-senpai behind the twins, so he needed to lean further so he could see me.

"It's nothing important, really," I said, frowning uncomfortably. However, this was a different type of discomfort from before. I really didn't want any fuss to be made over this at all.

"Hollie-chan, if it's making you unhappy, then it's important to us," Honey-senpai further commented, smiling in a concerned, but still cute manner. Mori-senpai nodded in support, followed by more vocal agreement from the other hosts.

I paused for a moment in shock at their supportive responses; my cheeks blushing slightly. I breathed out heavily.

"I've just had this weird feeling all day like someone's been watching me," I stated bluntly, crossing my arms uncomfortably. All of the hosts, even Mori-senpai too, gasped at my declaration.

"A stalker? Right then, I declare a mission!" Tamaki-senpai stated, taking to his feet, pointing at me with an annoyingly determined look on his feet. "It's called: 'Save Hollie from her Stalker'!"

"Huh? Wait a second! Don't just declare such stupid things without my permission!" I shouted, taking to my feet as well, frowning heavily at Tamaki-senpai, who dashed away from the table, ignoring me completely, and from another room, pulled out a large whiteboard on wheels, and wrote the title of his ridiculous plan across the top. "Cut it out, senpai!"

"I think we should go through with it," Kaoru said, I stared at him in complete shock.

"I agree," Kyouya-senpai agreed, closing the lid of his laptop, and standing up in a supportive fashion, a hand coolly in his blazer pocket. I stared with an equally gob-smacked expression. My cheeks grew unusually warm as I glanced between the two of them.

Barely moments after, Hikaru, Haruhi, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai stood up as well, agreeing that apparently it was worth finding out who my 'stalker' is. Recovering from my state of shock, I looked at Haruhi pleadingly, but she just smiled reassuringly at me, giving me a small thumbs-up. It felt like she was mocking me.


	16. Surveillance and Surprises

**Author's Notes: **I'm not going to lie: this chapter felt like it took forever to write, so I hope it really is fulfilling to read. I realise it takes ages for me to update, but I'm trying to improve. And please, let me know what you think of my writing. It's really helpful and hey, that's enough of a reason? Right? Well, I really left you all on a bit of a cliff-hanger in the last chapter (hopefully), and I hope the resolution isn't disappointing. I personally found it gripping when I imagined it in my head one day at college. Well, I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless, and I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

* * *

The rest of the club meeting passed in a chaotic blur: Tamaki-senpai excitedly ranting his plans to the twins, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai who stood watching him pace in front of them as they stood with their hands in a daft yet remarkably obedient salute like they were parodying the seriousness of loyal soldiers. Haruhi and Kyouya-senpai remained stood quietly by the table in the spots where they had been sat during the meeting watching Tamaki-senpai, knowing as well as I did that there was nothing to stop him now that he was set on this plan – whatever it was.

I could only stand speechlessly and watch as the hosts prepared themselves for a mission which I was certain was going to be fruitless: there was no guaranteeing I _did_ have a stalker at all. And if I did, how on Earth did they expect to catch this person when the entire host club was motivated to find them? It would be too obvious.

Especially since it was Tamaki-senpai's plan.

But what I couldn't understand was why everyone was so eager to go along with Tamaki-senpai's ridiculous scheme. Or rather, to better phrase it, why were they prepared to go along with a scheme that meant helping me, the most useless member of the club?

It was a question that hung over me for the rest of the evening and the train ride to school with Haruhi the following morning. I couldn't understand particularly why Haruhi was going along with this. If it wasn't the fact that she never followed Tamaki-senpai's plans didn't balance the logic to explain this strange result, she knew well enough I didn't like this one bit. And for the first time ever, she wasn't on my side. It felt like some weird form of betrayal. Like treason in the sisterhood, or something.

My head still bowed slightly in a sleepy and thoughtful daze, as I held onto the metal bar above my head, my other hand holding my book bag at my side, I continued to frown thoughtfully as I felt my body being thrown gently as the train pulled to a stop at our station. Haruhi called my name with her soft voice, distracting me from my thoughts, watching the doors of the train open to indicate it was our stop. Haruhi stepped off the train first, and I followed after an elderly lady took a long moment to tentatively step onto the platform.

"Why are you going along with this?" I asked Haruhi as we walked out of the train station, after deliberating on the question for the few minutes it took us to leave the platform.

"What do you mean why?" Haruhi asked as we walked along side each other. A small smile was on her face, and her expression was gentle, but at the same time they had a look that said I should know the answer to that question. It was strange, despite the circumstances; being involved in one of Tamaki-senpai's delirious plans, Haruhi had an unexpected eagerness in her round, brown eyes and the bouncy nature of her short brown hair as she walked that I couldn't think of the reason for. Normally in circumstances like these, Haruhi had less energy in her eyes, and although it was subtle and often unnoticed by other people at school, Haruhi's hair wouldn't bounce freely like it was now, and she would drag her feet a little as she walked. There was also a small hint of cheekiness or omniscience; like she knew the question had been on my mind for such a long time.

"You wouldn't normally go along with Tamaki-senpai's plans," I stated confidently.

"That's true," Haruhi agreed with a soft, thoughtful smile. "But, it really seemed like you were bothered by this person who seems to be following you."

"We don't know someone actually is following me," I corrected her, frowning stubbornly, mostly for my own comfort.

"That's also true. But I suppose it's better to let Tamaki-senpai and the twins have their fun and prove there isn't anyone following you, rather than let it be. And they'll just sulk until they get their way anyway," Haruhi agreed with a nod, then grinning at the mental image that must have appeared in her head of the three of them sulking. I grinned slightly moments later as the image also played in my head. "But don't you find it surprising that Kyouya-senpai of all the hosts seemed so eager to get involved?"

I paused in the middle of my step as Haruhi's question processed through my head. It was definitely strange. I could kind of let it go that Hikaru and Kaoru were eager to follow Tamaki-senpai in his plan –probably for the potentially interesting event they were likely to have imagined in their heads-, but Kyouya-senpai? Kyouya-senpai was much more down-to-Earth in comparison to Tamaki-senpai and the twins, and didn't make a fuss over such delirious possibilities. Why on Earth would he go along with this? But I shook the thought away as I focused on the overall situation: why on Earth were any of the other hosts willing to go along with this? Tamaki-senpai was just an idiot with an untameable imagination. But still, what good does this do for the host club?

Despite the heavy thoughts that flashed through my head in that short moment, I quickly pulled myself together to avoid Haruhi noticing how much her question had affected me. But, Haruhi smiled knowingly at me anyway, which unnerved me slightly. Though this I was better at hiding as I resumed walking.

"Maybe Kyouya-senpai is just bored?" I said in a lower voice as I continued walking up the hill towards school slightly ahead of her in an attempt to keep my facial expression anonymous. I knew it wasn't the case, but I just felt like I had to give some sort of response to her question anyway. Just, anything but the doubtful one that I was really thinking. Yet, as my thoughts raced, my cheeks felt unusually warm, but I couldn't place a reason for this response. I assumed it was because we were walking up hill and my body was just warm from the extra work.

We walked in silence up to the main gates of school, and we barely walked down the path to the central front building of school until Haruhi and I realised that all of the hosts had casually assembled themselves by the front double doors waiting for us. This brought me to think of a question I otherwise hadn't remembered to ask Haruhi, which I asked out loud after exchanging quiet "good mornings" with the hosts.

"What exactly is your stupid plan, Tamaki-senpai?" I asked, folding my arm over the one that was holding my book bag, as I mentally braced myself for some ridiculous explanation I would probably regret asking about afterwards.

"It's very simple, Hollie," Tamaki-senpai stated, ignoring my criticism, brushing his fingers through the front of his hair in his 'princely' graceful manner, grinning as he took a breath to prepare explaining to me. "We're going to take turns staking out the area for anyone suspicious who would try to stalk you."

"Right…" I said, breathing out heavily. "And what do I have to do?"

"Just be your usual self," Tamaki answered, shrugging away any other interest in the topic and his princely demeanour at the same time.

"So I don't have to do anything particularly interesting? I want to at least do something useful if I'm going to go along with this," I mumbled grumpily. I really didn't want go through with this at all, but I at least wanted to be like my detective from my novel if I was going to do anything.

"Wouldn't it be hard for Hollie-chan to do anything if she's the one being watched?" Honey-senpai butted in, speaking in his cute yet curious tone, walking over towards me with Usa-chan in his arms. "Hollie-chan, don't be disheartened, just being yourself is being useful: it's important your stalker doesn't know we're trying to figure them out."

Tamaki-senpai nodded thoughtfully with his chin resting in his hands. After a moment of silence, he opened his eyes and moved his hand away, snapping his fingers, drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"Time to assemble into our shifts," Tamaki-senpai stated with a grin.

"Shifts?" I asked, gulping.

"Yes, shifts, Hollie," Tamaki-senpai repeated. "It's strangely fortunate that Hikaru and Kaoru, and Haruhi are in the same class as yourself, since it means you're never _alone_."

Tamaki-senpai's emphasis on the word 'alone' was strangely cryptic. It was strange, since to the naked eye you probably wouldn't think much of it, but there existed an unexpected paranoia in his voice when he spoke that word. He seemed genuinely worried. Even though this was all a part of one of his stupid plans. Just a stupid plan. Yet, for reasons I couldn't muster an explanation for, maybe that particular word just felt strangely significant anyway, regardless of how Tamaki-senpai said it, or the absurdly concerned yet dismissive expression on his face. Before Tamaki-senpai continued, I glanced at the three classmates of mine he had mentioned. Even Haruhi, as observant as she can be, didn't seem too bothered by what he said, or how he said it, so I just shrugged it off. But from the corner of my eye, I was almost certain Kyouya-senpai seemed a little bit moved, though I couldn't think why, or if I was just imagining things.

"So, since you three are always around at some point, you're on a permanent shift to make sure Hollie is never by herself or without some form of trustworthy company at all times," Tamaki-senpai continued.

"Got it!" Hikaru and Kaoru both said immediately at the same time, saluting in a symmetrical fashion, with Haruhi nodding with the same eager yet cheeky smiled as she stood closely at my side to prove her loyalty, first directing her smile at Tamaki-senpai, then at me, widening her smile. She could probably tell I didn't like this.

"As for the rest of us," Tamaki-senpai continued, turning to face Honey-senpai with Mori-senpai and Kyouya-senpai who were stood under the balcony that overlooked the courtyard. "Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai, you're lesson after lunch is close to Hollie's and Haruhi's homeroom, so you will be surverying the area for anyone suspicious who might be trying to make a casual exit."

"Yes!" Honey-senpai beamed eagerly, with Mori-senpai nodding with a low emotionless grunt like he always did.

"As for Kyouya and myself," Tamaki-senpai said in a lower, more thoughtful voice. "Kyouya, your last lesson is only two doors down from Hollie's art class, right?"

"Yes," Kyouya-senpai quietly confirmed, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"In that case, if Hollie for any reason has to stay behind from class to finish work, stay close by to escort her," Tamaki-senpai finished, Kyouya nodding at his orders.

"But Tono, Hikaru and I have art with Hollie anyway," Kaoru protested suddenly. "I can stay behind and wait anyway. It'll look less obvious that there's anything going on since I'm already there. Rather than have a _senpai_ _wait outside the classroom_."

"But, if you spend all day with her staking out for clues, it might look too obvious that you're making more effort to make sure Hollie isn't alone," Tamaki-senpai mumbled in protest. Everyone could see the flaw in his logic, since students had come to notice that wherever the twins were, there was a chance Haruhi or myself would be nearby. And students would definitely notice the unusual scenario that Kyouya-senpai and I were together outside the host club. But no one protested further since we knew either way Tamaki-senpai had made his decision, and wasn't going to change his mind.

"But it's not making any effort," Kaoru mumbled under his breath, barely loud enough for anyone besides his brother to hear. I could only glance sympathetically at him, hoping it would be enough for him to know that I appreciated his kindness. Yet, I didn't feel like it was doing any justice, and as Kaoru breathed out heavily, the atmosphere seemed heavier with it. I felt awful that Kaoru felt neglected in this way, but I couldn't think of a good response to change it.

"And what are you going to do?" I asked a few moments later in a hope to break the tension, turning my attention –and hopefully everyone else'- back to Tamaki-senpai and away from Kaoru's altered mood.

"I'm going to do some under cover staking of my own," he answered, grinning proudly at the thought. The tension returned, but for a whole new reason. If it was Tamaki-senpai going undercover, it wasn't going to be undercover at all. Or at least not work out that way. Yet, none of us had any way to say anything to voice this concern. We just stood in silence for a brief moment, each of us knowing the same thought was crossing our minds.

When I was going to speak again, the moment was stolen as more students started to walk past us and took notice of the _entire_ host club stood at the front of school, and how obscure it was. Which was true, and it was with this that we all decided to part ways to our home room classes: apparently to avoid the stalker realising we had grouped together in the way we had. Haruhi was the first to walk away before Tamaki-senpai could return to his usually fussy nature and try to offer himself as her escort. This was followed by Hikaru following after her, and Kaoru grabbing the space of my wrist between the edge of my wrist and the palm of my hand, saying "let's go" in a tone I couldn't understand. It seemed like a mixture of uncharacteristic grumpiness and some other emotion I couldn't name. All I knew is it left our senpais to find their own way with little to no goodbye from us.

It was only after we ascended to the floor our homeroom class was on that Kaoru finally let go of my hand, and we each regained our own composures and catching up with Hikaru and Haruhi. Kaoru remained silent for the rest of homeroom, while Hikaru and Haruhi seemed unbothered by the events – or didn't seem to make it appear like our obscure meeting at the front of school with the other hosts even happened. Kaoru on the other hand throughout the rest of the morning was subtly quieter than his usual self, though the rest of the class didn't seem to notice the bothered look on his face at certain times in the morning. I seemed to be the only one who noticed, yet I couldn't bring myself to say anything without drawing obvious attention to the fact that Kaoru didn't seem his usual self. I quietly assumed he didn't want anyone to notice.

It was this that kept my mind otherwise at ease all morning. My mind was too occupied in trying to subtly keep Kaoru's mind distracted from his concerns that I didn't have the chance to feel selfishly concerned about the issue that the hosts were occupied with. It was a strange contradiction.

Like yesterday, I assisted Hikari-san after break finished with her books, though this time I was merely there to tag along and keep her company. It felt nice to not be under the watchful eyes of the hosts and just truly be myself without feeling like there was a constant survey for 'suspicious behaviour' or anything like that. Though, as I closed the door to the locker room behind myself as Hikari-san paced to her locker, that strange feeling returned as my hand let go of the door handle. There were only a few other people in the locker room from what I could hear of the blurred conversations, but none of the voices were ones I recognised, so I assumed I was just over reacting. Shaking my head, I caught up with Hikari-san who was in the middle of turning the handle of her locker combination when I approached her side.

Opening the door, Hikari-san rearranged her books like she had yesterday, but her usually pleasant expression didn't print itself on her face like it normally did, though I didn't have the courage to ask if something was bothering her. I assumed asking would only offend her if I was mistaken. As she told me about her new play the drama club was planning to perform next, she seemed at times to trail off into thought in the middle of her sentences, frowning momentarily before realising she had gotten distracted and carrying on with what she was saying.

"The drama club really seems enthusiastic about performing Shakespeare, after our class' performance of Romeo and Juliet," Hikari-san said, smiling proudly. Her eyes trailed off once again from her locker, before snapping out of it again, smiling with an embarrassed expression. "Everyone in the drama club was impressed with your performance as Juliet, you know."

"I-I see," I mumbled, forcing an embarrassed smile. My cheeks turned red, even though Hikari-san had told me this numerous times. It never stopped making my stomach flutter though. I looked back at Hikari-san who had another bothered expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh! Umm… It's nothing, don't worry," Hikari-san said, smiling mildly. She closed her locker door shut. "Shall we get going?"

I nodded in agreement, though Hikari-san had already started walking towards the door we had come in by before I had a chance to really respond. We walked up to our classes like we always do, and like always I caught up to Hikaru and Kaoru who looked at me with concern.

"There you are! You disappeared," they said in unison in a reprimanding tone. Strangely, I felt more alleviated by this, since as soon as they took notice of me, the subtle feeling of being watched faded as if the feeling never existed in the first place. "Haruhi's walked on ahead in case you had gone on ahead."

"Sorry, sorry," I said in a half-earnest tone, smiling softly, humoured by their reaction at my return. "I was with Hikari-san, so don't worry."

Despite saying this, I couldn't force a completely honest tone. I couldn't ignore the heavy feeling that I had felt in the locker room, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything. But Kaoru just frowned at me, and without saying anything I kind of admitted the truth.

"Please don't disappear on us," Hikaru said, digging his hands in his pockets, looking down at me with an unimpressed expression. He walked on my right hand side.

"But don't you find it odd?" Kaoru asked, walking on my left hand side. Hikaru and I turned to look at him, slightly puzzled. "When you really think about it, who on Earth would want to stalk you, Hollie? I mean, you're one of the quietest in our class, and although you're in the host club, you don't draw attention to yourself."

Hikaru nodded with a low groan in agreement, and I nodded at the same time. I turned my attention away from Kaoru as I stared at a spot on the floor as we walked. The colour of the tiles on the floor blurred into a vague image as my mind spaced out, letting my thoughts take control. I honestly couldn't think of anyone I had upset in school. And Kaoru was right, I didn't make any effort to stand out or draw any attention to myself. If anything, I tried to avoid drawing attention to myself. I felt annoyed. I couldn't piece together why I felt so paranoid at all these unusual intervals.

'But then, who said I was actually being followed at all?' I reminded myself.

This was the question I repeated in my head throughout the rest of the morning until lunch, when Haruhi, along with Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai, walked with me back to my homeroom class where Haruhi and I ate our lunch in the beautiful peace and quiet we both indulged in.

"I'm really sorry you're being dragged into this," I said to my senpais as they dismissed themselves to eat lunch in the cafeteria.

"It's fine, Hollie-chan!" Honey-senpai said in his cheerful tone with an equally cute and cheerful smile. "We want you to be safe. We'll come back after we've eaten to keep an eye out, okay?"

I barely responded, but they took that as a form of confirmation. Honey-senpai gave me one more perky grin and started walking away. Mori-senpai hesitated for a moment in silence. Raising a hand, he gently patted the top of my head, with the tiniest crack of a smile that lasted as shortly as it was obvious to see, before walking in long, casual strides behind Honey-senpai.

Taking a seat back next to Haruhi on the window sill after taking my lunch out of the box I had left next to her, I ate the sandwiches I had prepared in blissful quiet as Haruhi ate the leftovers she often packed in her bento. Yet, halfway into the lunch break, that strange feeling returned again. This time it was more nauseating than ever. I stared at the door to our classroom intently, trying to take notice of anything suspicious. Nothing. No one stood in the door frame. I couldn't see a shadow of where a person who could have walked out of sight either. I couldn't hear the sound of footsteps either, like the shoes most of the girls wore. I continued to stare intently at the doorway, and in my peripheral vision I could see Haruhi leaning forward to examine my expression.

"Hollie? Something wrong?" she asked, probably knowing the answer. I turned to look at her a moment later and nodded with a forced smile. "Did you think there was someone watching again?"

To be honest, I didn't know what to think. At first, I was convinced these weird feelings were just unusually strong feelings of intuition that just happened to reoccur. But now with this feeling repeating so regularly now, I couldn't convince myself this was just a feeling of intuition – my mind playing weird tricks to keep me on edge. Now it felt like there was a general reason for the nauseating feeling to occur so often, though I couldn't think who on Earth would want to stalk me.

I merely nodded in a dull mannered, turning my attention back to the rest of my lunch. A couple of minutes later, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai returned, peering around the doorway with Honey-senpai peering with a smile on his face, and Mori-senpai's head above his with his usual emotionless expression.

"Is everything okay?" Honey-senpai asked as he bounced over, a concerned expression on his face. He had clearly taken note of my bothered expression before I had a chance to hide it.

"Hollie felt she was being watched again," Haruhi explained calmly.

"Ehh? When was this?" Honey-senpai asked, his expression turning subtly more serious.

"Only a couple of minutes before you arrived," I answered, speaking before Haruhi could answer for me. Honey-senpai turned his attention to me.

"I didn't notice anyone before we came by," Honey-senpai said, his face falling. He then turned to Mori-senpai. "Takashi, did you notice anything?"

Mori-senpai shook his head without a word, and Honey-senpai paused for thought, his concerned expression deepening. After a moment he realised I was watching his expression intently, and he snapped out of it with a determined grin.

"Well, I guess for now, all we can do is wait and see if anything else happens," Honey-senpai said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, though his expression was transparent.

I wasn't sure what Honey-senpai meant by 'anything else' but whatever he meant, it sent a strong shiver down my spine. However, there were still too many unanswered questions like 'who' and 'why', so I decided to push my pessimism aside, encouraging a wide smile onto my lips. This caught myself by surprise as it did Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai and Haruhi.

"It'll be fine, right?" I said, trying to encourage a determined tone, lifting my hand into an equally determined fist.

Honey-senpai's expression softened into one of shock, and then it became impossible to interpret as he pulled me into a hug, similar to one like Tamaki-senpai would force on me, but this was a hug from someone that didn't bother me and had good intentions. In the background as I scrunched my eyes shut, Haruhi giggled softly as my arms clambered to return Honey-senpai's embrace. Mori-senpai's response was unknown to me, since like always he was silent. But who knew if he was smiling or just staring with an emotionless expression like he most likely was doing.

Honey-senpai pulled away after around half a minute, grinning widely as he rested his hands holding onto the spot between my wrists and the palms of my hands like Kaoru had earlier. I could feel his eyes watching my expression intently, and the amount of intention made my face burn bright pink to the point where I could no longer look back at him.

"Honey-senpai… Do I have something on my face or something?" I asked shakily.

Honey-senpai didn't respond, until after an awkward few minutes when Mori-senpai pointed in the direction of the clock on the wall next to the doorway, signalling that it was the end of lunch. Haruhi and I quietly gathered our books and put our lunches away as we left the classroom to go to class. As we left the classroom, Haruhi and I bid our good-byes to our senpais, both of us apologising for taking up their lunch break. Honey-senpai simply shook his head saying it was no trouble at all, followed my Mori-senpai nodding his agreement. I assumed that because Honey-senpai wasn't troubled by it, that Mori-senpai didn't feel a need to be bothered either. Something about the two of them made them seem inseparable, though I didn't know why.

The afternoon passed by quickly. I didn't dare tell Hikaru or Kaoru about the incident during lunch. Especially during art class at the end of the day, even though Kaoru had made it clear had seen through me as he watched my intently at convenient moments during the lesson. I otherwise avoided thinking about the entire incident as I started the first section of charcoal on my new art class project. I was taken away by the detail where the charcoal smudged into softer shades, and the darker ones that I had left untouched. It was almost hypnotising, the mirroring soft shades on the smudges on my fingertips. I didn't notice everyone else leave at the end of class until Kaoru must have been repeating my name multiple times. I looked up from my easel where my art pad was leant upright, my expression someone puzzled as I came back to my senses.

"We should head to the club room," Kaoru said softly, a gentle, amused smile on his lips. But at the same time, his eyes made it seem like he was still pressed by the questions I knew he was thinking during the lesson.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak again, we were both distracted by a presence that stood in the open doorway of our classroom. Kyouya-senpai stood in the door way, looking between us.

"I'll keep an eye on Hollie," Kyouya-senpai said in his cool, dominant tone. Kaoru stared silently at him for a long moment. The atmosphere suddenly turned strangely tense as the two of them exchanged serious glances. It seemed like they were exchanging a silent conversation that I couldn't understand. It made my chest ache, which reflected itself on my face.

"Fine. I'll go catch up to Hikaru," Kaoru mumbled, directing his last sentence at me, as he noticed my uncomfortable expression.

I watched Kaoru pack his things away and leave with dragging feet. I felt bad, but I didn't know what to say. My head lowered itself as I processed what I understood of what just happened, until I realised Kyouya-senpai was still waiting for me. Surprised, I looked back up at him ready to apologise for getting distracted, when I was surprised again as he looked out the doorway in the opposite direction of where he had entered. His expression was calm, but there was still a hint of discomfort, which made me twice as uncomfortable: Kyouya-senpai was never an easy person to read, and to understand this much probably meant there was more brooding under the surface.

I watched his expression until he returned his attention back to me, and I jolted to cleaning up after myself; gathering my books and putting away my charcoal I had used. Standing in front of Kyouya-senpai in the doorway to the classroom, Kyouya-senpai looked at me for a second before gesturing with his hand to walk down the corridor in the direction he had been looking earlier. We walked side by side, and although I wanted to speak, there was a concentrated and calculating look in Kyouya-senpai's eyes that I didn't want to distract. We walked through the corridors, the only sound being the sound of my shoes tapping over the softer sound Kyouya-senpai's shoes, and our soft breaths: Kyouya-senpai's calm and collected while mine was slightly more coarse and nervous.

As we walked up to the floor where the music room was, we heard shouting from around the corner of the final corridor. This time, neither of us was distracted in our thoughts or the resisting the temptation to speak, and we hurriedly raced towards the sound. Stopping by the corner, we stared in shock as Hikaru and Kaoru were holding down an unfamiliar yet familiar student, dressed in the male school uniform, though I couldn't figure out why he was familiar as he was hunched over on his hands and knees trying to fight off the twins.

"What's going on?" I asked in breathless shock, still startled by the unexpected sight.

Upon hearing my voice, the stranger quickly pulled his head up to look at me. Something about his face made him even more familiar, though my mind was too scrambled to label why. This time, he shook the twins off in a mixture of strength and the twins pulling away as they also realised I was here.

"You found the stalker?" Honey-senpai's soft voice asked as he appeared from the double doors of the clubroom with Mori-senpai looming his head around the door above Honey-senpai's. Tamaki-senpai curiously looked around the door as well, his expression changing to surprise as he looked at the male student on the floor.

"S-stalker?" the male student questioned shakily, looking around him at the hosts. By now, even Haruhi had looked around the doorway to look at the commotion and checking it out for herself. "I'm not a stalker!"

The hosts just glanced in disbelief at each other. By now, I had recovered my composure a little, the male student clambering nervously to his feet. Now I looked at him myself he seemed more familiar. He was a tall man, similar in height to Tamaki-senpai. Despite his flushed cheeks, I remember somehow that he usually had a calm, professional personality. He had emerald green eyes and dark brown hair. For some reason, I imagined him having some sort of object in one hand… Yes! A rolled up script!

"You must be… from the drama club?" I asked, my memory still uncertain.

The hosts all turned their attention to me this time. Then the twins looked at each other, probably surprised they didn't recognise them either: since they were also in my drama class and had some form of connection to the drama club that the other hosts didn't have. Though, despite recognising him, I don't remember ever talking to him, or ever hearing his name.

"Yes," he answered, this time with complete confidence. He brushed his uniform, his eyebrows creased with offense from the offense he had received from the twins. "I am the drama club's president: Ryuu-"

"Big brother!" a female's voice shrieked from behind me. Looking over my shoulder, Hikari-san dashed past Kyouya-senpai and myself to her brother's side with a questioning and surprised expression. The rest of us looked at the two of them in shock. From the corner of my eye, it seemed that Kyouya-senpai was the only one not surprised, pushing his glasses up his nose with a calm expression on his face. "Big brother, what are you doing?"

"I was going to settle the matter for myself," Ryuu-senpai answered. I looked at the other hosts, puzzled.

"Settle what matter?" I asked with a slight stammer, still taken aback from the revelation. Hikari-san turned to look at me with an apologetic expression. Suddenly I realised that whatever it was that was troubling her this morning, it had something to do with her brother.

"You never got around to asking her did you?" Ryuu-senpai asked, his face disapprovingly looking down on his sister.

"I couldn't! Not after I upset Hollie-san!" Hikari-san answered, turning back to her brother. As she spoke, I could see her eyes flicker momentarily to Kyouya-senpai, and her cheeks very faintly turning pink. I felt my stomach sink momentarily, although the matter at hand distracted it almost immediately.

"What 'matter'?" the majority of the hosts besides Kyouya-senpai and Mori-senpai asked impatiently.

"Hollie-san," Ryuu-senpai said in a serious, professional tone, taking a step away from Hikari-san towards me. "I have been trying to find the moment to ask you something very important."

I nodded silently, frowning as I tried to follow what he said.

"On behalf of the drama club, I am here to invite you to join Ouran's drama club," Ryuu-senpai finished, his eyes fixed on me, determined and serious. His cheeks were still flushed.

All but two hosts who didn't need naming, vocally reacted with 'ehhh's and exaggeratingly stepping back as if what Ryuu-senpai had said had propelled some kind of magical force field against them, pushing them away from him. However, although I was surprised, I had frozen temporarily in place, swallowing nervously as I realised what this meant: Ryuu-senpai was asking that I left the host club.

"You should be taking this up with me! Hollie is ours! We can't just give her away!" Tamaki-senpai protested a few long and awkward moments later.

"Tamaki-senpai, don't treat me like I'm some material object!" I shouted, finally pulling myself from the stupor I succumbed to.

"I should have guessed," Kyouya-senpai said, his hand still pressed gently on the rim of his glasses, his face tipped slightly forward as if he had been in thought the entire time. He lifted his face up, looking directly at Ryuu-senpai.

"Kyouya-senpai," we all mumbled dumbfounded. The twins continued: "You knew all along?"

"Well, it wasn't hard to figure out," Kyouya-senpai said, partially grinning as the rest of us were all feeling helplessly dim at what he said. "It's predictable that after Hollie's performance in her drama class' production of a famous Shakespeare play as a lead female role, that Hollie might attract the attention of fellow thespians."

I stared at Kyouya-senpai speechlessly. In my peripheral vision, I could see Ryuu-senpai nodding in agreement with a smirk on his face.

"Also, from my own observations in our class, I could sense that Ryuu-san was avoiding any form of eye contact of personal contact with myself or Tamaki, which suggested an unusual uneasiness, supporting my earlier suspicion about the drama club after the performance."

"Wow, Kyouya-senpai. You never stop taking account of these kinds of things," the twins mumbled in unison, their eyes fixed uncomfortably on him. Kyouya-senpai merely shrugged in his cool fashion with a proud grin.

"The issue at hand, is what Hollie wants to do," Kyouya-senpai continued, this time turning his attention directly at me. This time, everyone turned to us, shocked as Kyouya-senpai smiled at me. _Kyouya-senpai was giving me a choice?_ No, it can't be. I was still in debt to the host club, wasn't I? "Hollie, you still have duties at the host club, but there's no reason why you can't take time every now and then to have a change of scenery and take to the stage, right, Tamaki?"

This time, everyone's attention focused on Tamaki, and his surprised expression. For a moment there was a painfully long silence. What was Tamaki-senpai going to say? I wasn't sure how I felt about the situation and the offer at hand. It all felt so sudden. I was far too shocked by Kyouya-senpai's response that I couldn't tell what feeling belonged to what thought that raced chaotically around my head.

"Yea," Tamaki-senpai finally answered, grinning charmingly at me. Everyone watched him shocked. I stared at Haruhi who was smiling reassuringly at me. I looked back at him as he drew his breath. "But only every once in a while. We need Hollie here at the host club, after all."

My mouth trembled between shock and a small uncontrollable smile. Not only was I being given a choice, but I was _actually_ needed in the host club? A strong, over-whelming pulse raced through my chest. This time it wasn't painful, although it felt crippling in a beautiful, paradoxical kind of way.

"I'll be looking forward to your visits then," Ryuu-senpai said, grinning as he began to walk past me between Kyouya-senpai and myself. Hikari-san smiled eagerly at me, and followed after her smile. I could sense the slight hesitation as she approached the gap between Kyouya-senpai and myself.

My lip continued to tremble uncontrollably, my eyes wide with shock. Tamaki-senpai called everyone to return to the club room – we had an afternoon of club activities to prepare for after all. Everyone but Kyouya-senpai went on ahead, who stood next to me, watching my expression. After a moment, Kyouya-senpai started to walk towards the doors. A question still pressed in my head and just before he opened one of the doors, I knew I had to ask.

"Kyouya-senpai," I stuttered shakily. He turned to look at me with a curious expression. "W-why? Why are you giving me a choice?"

Kyouya-senpai grinned a little, shrugging more casually than usual. "Maybe because you seemed happy when you were on stage."

I stared at Kyouya-senpai, my mouth agape. Kyouya-senpai wants me to be happy? My trembling lips somehow formed into a confident smile, my cheeks burning as I bit back on my lip to control this surge of happiness that over-whelmed me, a small, truly excited giggle escaping my lips for the first time in what felt like _forever_.


	17. Reflection

**Author's Notes: **So I spent around 4 hours writing this. I am so tired, but so happy for finishing this. I'm sorry my updates are still irregular and not very frequent. I hope to write more after the end of next week when my English coursework is finally sent off, and I have just a little bit more spare time. I hope this chapter is enjoyable: although it was tiring to write, I loved every second of writing it, and I hope you enjoy it too. Please let me know what you think, it really means a lot to me knowing what you like and what you feel I should improve. I've proof-read this a couple of times, but I have made a few mistakes, I apologise for that: I'm probably too strained to notice everything.

* * *

When the host club activities finished, Kyouya-senpai took the opportunity to explain to the rest of the host club how exactly this whole 'stalking' ordeal ad actually happened. Some of it still didn't completely piece itself together in my head either, so I knew other members of the host club also appreciated having all of the facts cleared up.

At the time, we were all sat around the long table like we always did in host club meetings. In the usual formation: Tamaki at the head of the table, as the "king". Haruhi, unusually, sat near him on Tamaki-senpai's left hand side, with Kyouya-senpai sat next to her in the middle, and myself on his left at the end of the table. On Tamaki-senpai's right hand side, Honey-senpai sat with a plate of strawberry cake, with Mori-senpai next to him, and the twins sat leaning on their elbows, watching Kyouya-senpai as he closed the lid of his laptop to address all of us.

Kyouya-senpai explained the entire situation based on the questions that were fired at him, at the same time not seeming bothered at all that the entire event had happened. I suppose in a way, this was 'just another' event, but not one that Tamaki-senpai caused or jumped into head-first –and bringing the rest of us along with him-.

"What I don't understand," Honey-senpai started, his head tilted with a curious expression. "Hollie-chan said she felt like she was being watched during lunch today, yet we couldn't see anyone when we came back to her homeroom."

"I'm afraid, I cannot offer some complex explanation. If there was a time-gap of more than a minute between Hollie's feeling of being watched, and the time that you returned, it's more than likely that Ryuu-san was looking to see if Hollie was alone, and realising she wasn't, quickly left to wait for another opportunity."

"Hmm," Honey-senpai mumbled, his expression falling as his shoulders did so as well. Looking at Kyouya-senpai, I also felt a little disappointed that there wasn't a complex reason. I could kind of empathise with Honey-senpai: his efforts suddenly seemed unimportant. I turned my attention to Honey-senpai, offering a comforting smile from across the table, though he barely seemed to notice.

"So, Kyouya, I'm guessing Ryuu-kun's distant behaviour was just like you said earlier?" Tamaki-senpai asked, breaking the silence away from Honey-senpai.

"Yes. Precisely that," Kyouya-senpai answered, adjusting his glasses. "A failed attempt at avoiding drawing attention to himself, which only attracted my attention instead."

"I was going to say, I didn't notice him being 'out of character'," Tamaki-senpai mumbled, leaning an elbow onto the table and resting his chin in the palm of his hand.

"In that case, Hollie must have felt uncomfortable at the end of drama class because Ryuu-senpai and the drama club were stood at the back of the class waiting for the auditorium to be available to be used," Kaoru stated in a semi-questioning tone.

I stared at him from across the table. "How did you know I was feeling uncomfortable at that time?" I asked, frowning.

"You can only hide what you're thinking so well, Hollie," Kaoru answered with grin, leaning similarly to Tamaki-senpai. I merely stared back at him with a pouty expression and a frown. Shrugging, I turned my attention back to Kyouya-senpai, who was smirking amusedly at my 'pouty-face'. It took all of my energy not to repeat it as a natural reaction to his behaviour.

"Am I right in thinking that Ryuu-senpai was looking for me when I was in the locker room with Hikari-san? I couldn't see him or anyone else, but I did have that weird feeling," I asked thoughtfully.

"More than likely, yes," Kyouya-senpai answered with a short nod. There was a long silence. "Any more questions?"

"Just one more," I said, raising my hand pointing my index finger as I was answering a teacher's question. I lowered my hand once Kyouya-senpai looked back at me. "Why did Ryuu-senpai appear near the host clubroom, if he was so determined to approach me when no one else was around?"

"I assumed it was impatience," Kyouya-senpai answered bluntly. "He didn't seem pleased his younger sister –your friend-, had made little to no progress in persuading you to join the drama club. It appeared as if he couldn't wait much longer to complete his task, with the fuss over your performance now faded from discussion amongst the students."

"I suppose that makes sense," I mumbled, nodding. The other hosts also nodded in agreement.

"In that case, there's nothing else to be discussed, is there?" Tamaki-senpai asked, standing up out of his seat, his hands leaning on the table as he leant over the table. "Well, we may as well go home."

With that, we all made our separate ways. Haruhi and I grabbed our book bags from the changing room and said good-bye to Hikaru and Kaoru who were the first to leave. We then bid good-byes to our senpais, first to Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai, then to Tamaki-senpai and Kyouya-senpai. We left Tamaki-senpai to last since as soon as we started talking, he looked like he was going to leap at Haruhi to hug his 'daughters'. Well daughter. That being Haruhi. It was becoming much clearer that this 'daughter' thing was some sort of family structure of Tamaki-senpai's. Especially considering Tamaki-senpai going crazy over the Romeo and Juliet performance and his strong disgust with my kissing my 'brother' Hikaru. It was odd, but we had all learnt to cope with it.

Escaping the host clubroom, Haruhi and I walked out of school, down the hill to the train station. Holding onto the hand rail above my head on the train, the half an hour trip home begun as Haruhi and I silently felt our bodies being gently thrown as the train started into motion. The entire train ride home I was occupied by the events of the day. I was actually being followed by someone. Not necessarily being stalked –or not intentionally-, but someone had actually been following me. Only in the host club does this kind of thing happen. Never once at either two of my secondary schools in England did I experience anything like this. Yes, there were the occasional events of fuss by certain groups of girls and boys over stupid things, but that was normal at any secondary school. Host clubs, aristocracy and stalking. None of these things were normal at either of those schools. Sure, you occasionally have an admirer who shyly smiles at you whenever you cross paths around the school grounds, but never anything like what had happened today. My mind then shifted to Kyouya-senpai and what he said earlier. It made me think about how Kyouya-senpai usually is. He's normally so calm, collected and only acts for the sake of the host club. Then there was the Kyouya-senpai I heard about every now and then from students. Hikari-san's obvious attraction to him, and she's definitely not the only girl in school who is.

Then there was what little I understood of his background. The occasional word echoing in the corridors about Kyouya-senpai's family being one of the most influential in the medical field in business, and rumours of Kyouya-senpai having two older brothers and unconfirmed rumours of an older sister. The knowledge of Kyouya-senpai having elder brothers was most interesting to me. It immediately made it clear why Kyouya-senpai was so hard working: I may be a 'commoner' but I'm not oblivious to the idea of successors to family businesses. Kyouya-senpai was competing with two elder siblings, and if his family was as traditional as expected, the head of his family –most likely his father-, would naturally choose the eldest son as the successor. This thought pained me slightly. If there was one thing that was always obvious about Kyouya-senpai and was black and white about him, Kyouya-senpai was an ambitious individual. Not being able to achieve his goal probably frustrates him.

But then there was a side of me that said not to judge based on rumours. It's never wise. But, there was no denying Kyouya-senpai's ambitious personality wasn't respectable. It was as I pondered over this thought that I shook myself back to reality. I was thinking far too much about Kyouya-senpai. Accustoming myself back to reality, Haruhi simply smiled at me, mouthing "almost there". I nodded in response, watching Haruhi as she grinned at me, biting the side of her lip. Self-aware, I looked myself over in case something was splattered over my uniform, still holding the hand rail above my head. Unconsciously checking my face, I quickly realised my cheeks were unusually warmer than before. Was I coming down with a cold? Frowning, Haruhi just smiled quietly at me, while we ignored the other passengers sat on the seats around us who probably thought we were a bit odd.

When we were finally out of the station, I waved to Haruhi and walked the rest of the way home. I knew my brothers would be home before me. Jack didn't have any club activities today, and Jordan is just too lazy to join a club. Maybe I'm a biased younger sister, but there is some truth. Closing the front door of the house behind me, I dumped my book bag in my room. Dragging my feet into the kitchen, I flicked the switch on the kettle, and sat myself on a chair at the dining room table, much to the relief of my poor ankles. I sat quietly as the next couple of minutes passed with the sound of the kettle's boiling water bubbling gradually louder. When the switch flicked, I pulled myself back onto my feet and made a cup of English tea. I sat back in my seat, my hands wrapped around the side of the cup, basking in the heat. I slowly sipped at the tea, the comfort in my ankles gradually coming back. The house was quiet. The TV in the living room was turned off, and the only noises were my nails tapping my cup, and the faint sound of my brothers' playing video games in Jordan's room. The only real noise was one of them shouting, probably one of them died in a battle, or they just completed a difficult level. Swallowing another small sip of my tea, I breathed out heavily. It felt like the first time in a while that I simply stopped: not thinking about anything, not worrying, not getting caught up in chaos. I smirked: how long would it last until I was caught up in another train of thought?

Not very long at all. Sat crossed legged on my bed in my panda print pyjamas with my sketch pad, I stared at the sketch of the silhouette with all of its different colours. I stared at it for a few minutes, then raising my right hand which I would use to write or draw with, I traced my index finger lightly over the paper, the soft touch of the paper brushing my fingertip. In my head, the end of my fingertip became stained with colour. It was stained with the colour purple. Brushing my fingertip over the centre of the silhouette where the orange and purple clashed with each other, the borders of the purple magically extended over the orange by around an inch. The colour still clashed, but the purple took up a little more than half of the centre now. Blinking several times, I looked back at the page. The sketch was back to normal. The colours were exactly as they were before, the orange and purple still clashed in the same way as when I had first coloured it. My fingertip too, had no trace of colour other than my natural skin tone. No trace of purple ink or paint on my finger at all. Tired, I brushed my hands through my hair, over my forehead to the back of my head, brushing my hair back messily. Breathing out heavily, I allowed my body to fall back and my head to hit the pillow behind me. I felt troubled. I just wanted to thank Kyouya-senpai and Kaoru for being so kind to me. They both in their own way were doing their best to take care of me or do something so nice for me. All I could do was mouth it: I was far too tired to do anything else.


	18. Making a Visit

**Author's Notes: **Okay, so I haven't updated in a little while, but here's a new chapter! Yay! I'm really sorry it's been so long, but I had exams to study for - super important ones too, the difference between going to uni or not. But I finished a couple of weeks ago and have very slowly managed to write this chapter, alongside work and helping my friends, so it's not like I've been too lazy or anything, promise! I hope this chapter is enjoyable, and hopefully makes sense. Now I have no more college, depending on if I'm inspired, I should be updating more, but you know how it is, a hit and miss deal.

* * *

The following day was seemingly normal. The train ride and getting to school with Haruhi was fine. We boarded our usual train, walked up the hill to the grand gates, and made our way through the grand corridors of the school buildings to our homeroom. Homeroom session was simple and quiet, just as I liked it.

I wondered to my first lesson still slightly sleepy with my book bag loosely hanging at my side from my left hand. I was otherwise preoccupied in my thoughts about the history homework I had worked hard on for the lesson I was approaching, when I stalled slightly as I noticed Hikari-san smiling awkwardly at me as she was just about to walk into one of her lessons. She must have left quickly from homeroom, even though I was sure I was one of the first to leave, despite my semi-drowsy state. I smiled back with a little more enthusiasm than her, trying to make it clear that any awkwardness – from yesterday's encounter with her older brother and his offer to join the drama club – had not fazed me or my feelings about our friendship. Watching me smile, her head lowered as she stared at the floor stepping into her classroom, and out of sight. Frowning slightly, I continued walking; knowing thinking about it too much wouldn't change things right now.

It wasn't like I couldn't understand why Hikari-san felt uncomfortable. If Jordan had spent a couple of days seemingly stalking her to say, I don't know, ask her on a date (he hasn't joined a school club as far as I've heard, unless doing nothing counts as a club, so he has plenty of spare time, and the nerve to bother other people), I would probably feel awkward if it all came to light in the way it had yesterday. I affirmed this thought in my head as I took my seat in history class, and allowed the train of thoughts to dissolve.

History lessons were very different from my history lessons in England. Here, lessons focused on key wars or political events that happened in Japan, and in English lessons, all of my lessons up to that point mostly focused on English history, with the exception of countries like Egypt where you looked at well-known figures like the ancient Pharaohs. This didn't particularly bother me; learning about Japanese history was refreshing and made my studies more interesting. I'd learnt about the Second World War and the Victorian periods, among others in my lessons in England. Here, I've learnt about the Japanese perspective of the war, as well as periods when Japan was all but isolated from the rest of the world. It fascinates me. I rarely say it out loud, since the last time I did, Jordan and Jack teased me for being extremely nerdy and a bookworm. As if I really care. Their ramblings just irritate me.

Sitting through my lesson, I recorded my notes off the blackboard as my teacher spoke and wrote in white chalk on a board that was stained in the evidence of previous lessons in faded grey marks. It was one of the few lessons I wore my glasses, since unlike art and drama, I need to stare at my notes for lengths of time. I sometime get the feeling my Mum has influenced my history teacher; he seems to have incorporated group discussion into the lesson, though only briefly and on rare occasions. Most of the teachers just wrote and spoke as we wrote notes. We were expected to be academic about learning the information. This suited me well, but I could tell from some of the quizzical expressions and chatter after lessons that some of my classmates didn't suit this learning style.

This was a similar case as I packed for my books away into my book bag when the lesson ended. I walked out of the room quietly like I always did, the confused conversations fading as I turned left to walk to the stairs to go the second floor for my English lesson. I walked mostly in a world of my own, but was distracted by emerald greens eyes which watched me with momentary shock before the owner of them shyly lowered his head just enough so that his dark brown hair shrouded his face, but didn't seem too obvious to everyone else. It was effective, being as short as I am, and as tall he his, the top half of his face was concealed, though I could see his lips quiver slightly.

"Ryuu-senpai?" I said, though it sounded like a question, halting in place so we were less than a few feet away from each other. Slightly startled, he then looked up at me, though his expression was calmer and more professional than I expected considering the surprise he seemed to have been hiding under his hair moments before. He smiled politely at me. "Are you alright?"

"Very well, thank you," he answered, smiling a little wider this time. I smiled back, though I could feel the awkwardness hang heavily over us like a heavy cloud. This wasn't easy for either of us. "I can only assume you're also well."

I smiled a little more assertively, nodding slightly as I watched Ryuu-senpai. He seemed nervous. It was strange. On the few occasions I had seen him before the event yesterday, he was so calm, collected and never seemed to lack control of himself. In ways he was similar to Kyouya-senpai, if you ignored Kyouya-senpai's hosting and Ryuu-senpai's acting as being the most obvious differences. They were otherwise difficult to separate. Oh, and Kyouya-senpai's glasses. I don't recall Ryuu-senpai ever wearing glasses other than for a social realist monologue that Hikari-san had hinted to, which I otherwise had forgotten about until just now. Apparently Ryuu-senpai played a heartbroken man who had been betrayed by his lover who had been having an affair with his best friend. A very typical scenario.

Ryuu-senpai's eyes were fixed on mine, as if expecting me to mention something he was paranoid I would bring up. But I simply stated I was happy he was well and we parted ways quietly. No mention of the offer to be a part of the drama club, or talk of his younger sister, or anything else related to yesterday. I suppose that was in a way a good thing. I wasn't sure I was ready to talk about it either. I had no idea how to go about it in my head, let alone articulating it into words. That's never been my strong point.

"Hollie!" two voices called in unison. Looking over my shoulder, I knew who it was before I could fully acknowledge them. The twins cheerfully came towards me in a half walk, half skip manner. It was amusing to watch, and I couldn't fight back much of a smile. In the background, I could see Ryuu-senpai had taken a moment to observe the scene like a few others who were also walking past. His expression was difficult to properly interpret: it was a strange mix between a fulfilled smirk, and a regretful grimace. I couldn't understand it. I focused my attention back on the twins who grinned and slowed to a halt when they reached me a few feet away. They parted to walk on either side of me, each taking a shoulder and smoothly turning me and encouraging me to walk alongside them. I didn't resist them. "Looking forward to English?"

"No more than usual," I stated bluntly with a slightly confused expression. "Why? Should I be?"

"Hmm," they both murmured. "Not especially, but who knows? You sometimes have that expression on your face like you're anticipating something to happen." Hikaru states the question, and Kaoru finishes. My head turning slightly as they each spoke in turn.

I frowned slightly. I didn't like that they could read me that well. It's okay if it's Haruhi. She never judges me, unless I ask for her help, and it requires her to. The twins, however, they take more effort to keep in line. They so freely state things as it suits them, that I sometimes feel uneasy that they'll blurt something about what they think is going through my head that I would rather stayed in my head. I wish they would be more considerate to whether I want things blurted out like that. But there was also the good side to it. The twins were so blunt, that they're able to articulate my thoughts better than I can process them in my head. It's a paradox. But a strangely enjoyable one. Not that I would ever tell them that. Or would they figure that out too?

But I also hated being an open book. It was being a little bit mysterious that I hoped would keep me segregated from the other students in the first place when I arrived here, to avoid trouble, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. So annoying.

Grumpily, I increased my walking pace a little faster so I put some distance between myself and the twins. Though they quickly caught up to me without effort. They have much longer legs than me. Sometimes being short can be such a hassle.

I took my seat quickly, avoiding eye contact with the twins. If they're so good at reading me, they can tell I'm not happy with them. Hmph.

English lessons barely feel like lessons. Just an hour of staring at a board of writing that screams "obvious" at me. English here is taught as a language, like French or Spanish or German is in England. To a person whom English is their mother language, it seemed silly I was sat here at all. But, Ouran Academy being a school of soon-to-be business leaders, English was a mandatory lesson because English is considered in some areas "the international business language". I roll my eyes at the thought. 'Such laziness,' I thought, leaning my head in the palm of my hand as I leaned my elbow on the desk. Not exactly lady-like, but this is my Mum teaching the lesson, she can't exactly criticise without exposing that we were in fact related. Mum has moments when she sounds more like my mother than a teacher. I know she isn't prepared to have our 'true relationship' revealed yet, as long as it remains undetected. Honestly, how can you not piece it together? Hikaru and Kaoru did, but I guess everyone is probably avoiding jumping to conclusions just like they did. Avoid being rude.

It's only until halfway through the lesson when everyone has started writing essays about a foreign holiday (because what's the chance these rich aristocrats haven't left Japan yet?) that Mum, I mean, my teacher, walks up to my desk casually placing a book on the corner, and in a soft whisper explains to me a task of analysing an extract from Shakespeare's The Tempest, and then walking away to monitor the students in silence. The only sound coming from the tap of her heels against the tile floor. 'Great,' I thought. 'More Shakespeare. At least I'm not performing this one.'

I don't hate Shakespeare. On the contrary it fascinates me, but I can't be certain that any reference to Shakespeare won't spark my classmates to eternally link me to the wonderful playwright and never forget it. Typecasting has never appealed to me. Still, it's only when Haruhi, who I had otherwise not seen much of until now, is stood at my desk repeating my name.

"It's time for break," she says, smiling at me.

Nodding, I gather my books and put them in my book bag. I looked at Hikari-san's desk behind me, but she's long gone. I turned back to Haruhi who gestures for me to walk on ahead –I suppose it's a very polite 'male' thing to do- so I walked out of the classroom as we walk at a casual pace, chatting about English grammatical structure that Haruhi had been struggling to get her head around.

The rest of the day was quiet, thankfully. I maintained my pouty demeanour to the twins, who on a couple of occasions stated I was being childishly cute, which was apparently made cuter because of how uncharacteristic it was. I glared at them, though it only seemed to fuel the fire.

Even in the extra-dimensional world of the host club room, their antics focused on pressing my buttons. To the point that I struggled to walk past with a tray of tea cups and herbal tea without them looking over their shoulders with that irritating suggestive look in their eyes like they're going to make a comment that I don't want to hear. Sighing, I returned to a table with more tea sets, gathering tea cups and saucers, when from a single table and chair in the corner of the room in my peripheral vision, Kyouya-senpai snapped his notebook shut, stood up gracefully and walked over to my side. I initially ignored him, placing one final tea cup on the tray.

Realising he was still stood next to me, I looked up at him, his eyes fixed on mine. I paused for a moment as he held my gaze.

"Senpai?" I said curiously, barely in a whisper. I had to break this weird silence.

Turning his body to face the room, he opened his notebook again as if the past few seconds didn't even happen. I waited a moment for any response, but turned my attention back to the tray when he didn't speak.

"You can take a breather, if you need it," he stated quietly. I looked back up at him, slightly startled, though I tried to conceal it. I nodded slowly, releasing my fingers around the handles of the tray.

"Thank you," I mumbled, quickly taking my leave from the room.

I wasn't sure if it was just too obvious that I needed to get some space. Or if Kyouya-senpai was also able to read me like an open book. But in this case, I was grateful to him regardless of the reason. I couldn't understand why I was being given this special treatment, but I wasn't going to complain. I wasn't sure where my feet were taking me. I didn't have a plan of where I wanted to go. But I found myself turning the handle to the auditorium, and opening the door just enough to squeeze inside. I closed the door behind myself. I felt relieved, closing the door behind the joke that had gone too far. Behind all of the other stress that bothered me. Maybe Hikaru and Kaoru were right to an extent. Stomping off like this, it's exactly what a child would do. I frowned bitterly at the thought, but I didn't have a chance to dwell on it, when I realised moments later five pairs of eyes were staring at me.

On the stage of the auditorium, Ryuu-senpai and four other drama club members who I didn't know, watched me, holding a rolled up script in one hand, frozen in unnatural poses as if being entirely distracted in the middle of rehearsing a scene, but not relaxing from the last moment they were in until just now. Ryuu-senpai was the first to relax from his pose; pointing aggressively at one of the other male cast.

"Hollie-san, have you come to join us?" he asked, a mixture of curiosity, surprise, and what I could only guess is delight, in his voice. His voice was also remarkably calm, despite my sudden intrusion. I suppose he never really lets go of that professional appearance of his.

I didn't really know how to answer his question though. I didn't intentionally come here, I just stumbled upon the auditorium before I knew what I was doing. But now I was here, I didn't feel disappointed to be here. Pursing my lips, I gathered my thoughts.

"As long as I'm not interrupting," I answered, bowing my head forward slightly in a meek nod.

"Not at all," he stated, his face lit up slightly and his voice suddenly more enthusiastic. I wasn't sure this was entirely true. The only girl among them, I think must be the same age as Ryuu-senpai, looked at me with a stern expression. Her eyes scanned me as if sizing up her prey. I held back a shudder as I exchanged eye contact with her.

I made my way down the side of the auditorium, carefully avoiding bounding down the slope to the stage past the aisles of audience seats. Stepping onto the stage with the others, Ryuu-senpai grinned at me as I stepped into the world of the performer. The world really was our stage here. Or vice versa. I already felt at ease, though the eyes digging into me left me still uneasy.

"We weren't expecting you today," Ryuu-senpai stated, his face still lit up and his tone eager and barely holding back excitement.

"No. We weren't," the girl agreed. Her voice and face, on the other hand, were cold and clearly unimpressed I had dared to intrude in her territory. Though, despite the cold expression on her face, she was undoubtedly a woman of nobility. Her skin was flawless, with light brown hair styled perfectly so the soft waves delicately framed her face, and her golden eyes which, although were warm in colour, looked down at me icily. Though, moments later, her face transformed into one of a humble hostess and a sweet smile replaced her grimace, and the warmth seem to return to her eyes. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Satsuri Hisakawa. Don't worry, I know who you are." Her eyes looked upon Ryuu-senpai, before looking back at me distastefully. I merely nodded as it became clearer it was just her territory I was intruding on, I also seemed to be stealing the attention one person she would rather I didn't.

"Ah, these are fellow drama club members Ryouji Kagome, and Kazuhiko Tsukino," Ryuu-senpai continued, gesturing to two other male students who bowed politely at me upon hearing their names in turn. The one on the right, Ryouji-san, who I think was in one of the other classes, stood at a medium height, just a bit shorter than Ryuu-senpai, smiled at me with shy grey eyes, with strands of his navy blue hair slightly shrouding his eyes at times. Kazuhiko-san, who was a similar height, grinned excitedly at me with electric blue eyes and contrasting dark brown hair. I assumed he was also in the same year as me.

"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling softly. Being surrounded by so many people made me nervous, evident through my slightly shaky voice, but the atmosphere was strangely warm. I wasn't sure if it was Ryuu-senpai's calm demeanour, or the excitable aura that seemed to radiate from Kazuhiko-san uncontrollably that made me feel calm, despite the chilling feeling from the only other female.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!," the two males both replied. But Kazuhiko-san quickly added "Our president has told us so much about you. And your performance was really refreshing!"

I bit my lip nervously in response, but tried to increase my smile politely. I wasn't sure if it was the mention of Ryuu-senpai talking about me that choked me, or the praise, but it made my heart race uncontrollably which left evidence radiating on cheeks.

"I-I'm glad you enjoyed it," I mumbled, looking down shyly as the blush on my cheeks deepened as I realised I wasn't maintaining my cool.

The two boys laughed at my shyness, and from my right I could hear Ryuu-senpai clearing his throat, and they fell into silence, and I looked up at him.

"Hollie-san, if it's not much of a problem, would you mind giving us some constructive criticism on a scene we've been working on? As a director, of sorts," Ryuu-senpai then said, as he held our attention. Surprised at first, it took a moment for me to muster a nod. This could really keep me distracted. "Great! If you'd like to take a seat near the front, we'll run through the scene."

I did so, pulling the seat down, I sat down comfortably and as the drama club members prepared into their opening positions for the scene; a seemingly calm living room compromised of black blocks to represent furniture like a sofa and a coffee table, Ryuu-senpai sat back casually on one black in a side profile to the audience imitating holding a newspaper with his hands held up in front of his face as if holding the pages open. Satsuri-senpai similarly sat on a rectangular block, holding an imaginary teacup in her hands, seemingly staring out a window off stage behind Ryuu-senpai's head. Kazuhiko-san, who now sat him leaning against the other side of the block on the floor, no longer had the excitable grin on his face, but a more bored, serious expression as he wrapped arms around one of his legs which he had pulled close to him, while the other was stretched out so he was angled towards Ryuu-senpai. Ryouji-san was now off-stage, but he stood just on show so I could see him, signalling to me before fully concealing himself behind the black tab which was basically a large curtain.

Nodding at them, the scene unfolded itself and the characters came to life and the students disappeared. Satsuri-san was a proud housewife, taking careful sips from her teacup. Ryuu-senpai, became a husband and father who equally proud. Occasionally he turned the invisible pages of the newspaper in his hands. Kazuhiko-san became the bored teenage boy, lost in his world. The quiet normality that had formed on stage quickly shattered as Ryouji-san burst through an imaginary door which was only marked in two separates pieces of cello tape that was marked on the floor in two individual "X"s. Suddenly the paced sped up as Ryouji-san shouted at Ryuu-senpai about unpaid debts and debt collectors who wouldn't wait any longer. The entire family shocked, turned into chaos as it appeared the topic of debt was news to the mother and son, and the fact it had become known to them sent Ryuu-senpai's character into chaos of his. As the scene played out, I watched carefully each actors' physical gestures, how they responded to each other, how each line was delivered, how each word was spoken, and looking for the cracks where they were not their character but slipping back into students again. It was fascinating looking at it from this perspective.

The scene ended with Ryouji-san storming out of the 'living room' and off stage in rage the same side of the stage he had entered, and Kazuhiko-san also leaving off-stage from the right hand stage to 'another area of the house', with Satsuri-san sat in distraught and anger on a chair on the left hand side of the stage, while Ryuu-senpai sat in shame with his head in his hands in the same chair he had been sat in at the start of the scene. After a moment of pause, they broke out of their pose and looked down at me from the stage waiting for my response. I wasn't sure where to start or how to say what I had thought, but as I joined them on stage, I asked them to rehearse certain moments in front of me again as I suggested improvements to physical gesture, or improving the reaction and response between certain characters, occasionally playing a role in someone's place when I couldn't find the words to fully explain it.

I felt so easily lost in the atmosphere of working on stage, that I almost didn't acknowledge the feeling of being watched when I took on Ryouji-san's character as his character yelled at Ryuu-senpai's character, and I explained the fault about pointing with the wrong side of his body as he blocked the audience off with his shoulder with the one closest to the audience. It was only afterwards as I caught the doors of the auditorium close completely that I did acknowledge that feeling.

Eventually the rehearsal had to end, and I felt so relieved from being here. I felt like I had bonded with them, maybe less so with Satsuri-san, and somehow all the tension and stress from earlier with the twins seemed so trivial.

"Hollie-san, thank you for helping us," Ryuu-senpai said. "It's been very helpful receiving your advice. But we shouldn't hold onto you much more for today. We're going to continue rehearsing, but I think your… host club… would like to have you back at some point this afternoon."

"I-I'm glad I could be helpful…" I mumbled, bowing slightly. "Thank you for letting me join you."

"It was our pleasure," Ryuu-senpai said, smiling, with Kazuhiko-san grinning excitably at me, and Ryouji-san smiling shyly in return. Satsuri-san was still reorganising the stage and didn't give me eye contact at all. I smiled and made my leave before I could allow my embarrassment to be even more obvious.

Walking through the cold back to the host club, the cold air cleared my head as it rushed through my lungs. I felt so much more calm. I didn't plan to see the drama club this soon, but I don't regret it. And I owe it to Kyouya-senpai for that. Then I stopped for a moment. I _owe_ Kyouya-senpai. That can't be a good thing. Would he have anything he could request from me, anyway? I'm merely a commoner to him, what exactly can I offer?

Halting outside the double doors to the clubroom, I took a deep breath to calm myself down again before opening one of the doors and stepping inside. There were still a few guests here, being entertained by Tamaki-senpai and the twins, while Haruhi cleared the last few plates with crumbs from Honey-senpai's cakes as he sat contentedly next to Mori-senpai on one of the sofas. Haruhi was the first to notice me, smiling at me before quietly asking me where I had been, and mentioning that Kyouya-senpai hadn't long been back from quickly leaving to run an errand of his own while the clubroom was reasonably calm.

"I… I wound up going to the drama club for a bit," I answered in an equally quiet tone. But even the twins overheard me despite being so quiet.

"Eh? You went to the drama club? You snuck off to hang out with other people?" they asked in unison in a hurt tone as they interrogated me.

"I didn't sneak off!" I said, folding my arms defensively. "Kyouya-senpai gave me permission."

"Seriously?" they asked, looking over at Kyouya-senpai. Even Tamaki-senpai was paying attention now, as I spied in the background just behind the twins looking in Kyouya-senpai's direction as well. I turned my gaze towards him, as he nodded while writing in his notepad. "Why? I thought Hollie was ours?"

I bit back the temptation to explain I wasn't their property, as Kyouya-senpai paused from writing. "I gave Hollie permission so she could affirm with the drama club the seriousness of the deal the host club made yesterday," he explained, looking at me.

'Ah. So that's it. It was all a matter of business then?' I thought, but then I replayed that brief conversation in my head quickly. 'But Kyouya-senpai didn't tell me to go to the drama club. I just happened to go there.' Unless he expected me to go there? Or was he just covering me? But why on Earth would he do that?

The twins seemed to believe him, and just wrapped their arms around Haruhi and I, as Haruhi tried to balance the tray of used plates while fighting them off as we both wriggled uncomfortably but only failing. We didn't want to break those plates.

Tamaki-senpai bid the last guests goodbye with his so-called 'princely' routine as I helped Haruhi deal with the plates. Tamaki-senpai was being unusually calm about my absence, but I'm guessing because 'Mother', aka, Kyouya-senpai, had given me permission to run off, it was okay in his books. I managed to avoid any fuss over the matter, as the members of the host club made their leaves to go home. Haruhi said she had chores to do before going straight home, so she went home ahead of me, which left me alone to gather my things from the changing room, and alone with Kyouya-senpai. As I made my way to the doors to leave, I turned around to look at him, narrowing my eyes as I decided to raise the topic. He watched my expression as he closed his laptop as he sat at one of the tables, raising an eyebrow, giving me my cue to speak.

"How did you know I would go to the drama club?" I asked. "You didn't say to go directly there, and I never mentioned that was where I was going."

"It was, I think it's called, 'a hunch'," Kyouya-senpai answered, as he packed his laptop away. I wasn't going to take that for an answer.

"Don't lie to me," I said firmly. I gulped as I made a stab at an idea. "Kyouya-senpai, it was you who came into the auditorium earlier?"

"Is that a statement or a question?" Kyouya-senpai said monotonously. I clenched my teeth slightly.

"A… statement," I mumbled, but I was still doubtful. I gathered my confidence. "That was the only way you really knew I went to the drama club. I could have been lying to Haruhi just to wind up the twins for all you know."

"We both know you're not much of a liar," Kyouya-senpai said, standing up straight, adjusting his glasses with a smirk.

I couldn't hold back a tiny grin, but I still had more questions. It was true, I'm an awful liar. I may be an actress, but I'm awful at making excuses, and hate the thought of misleading people if I can avoid it.

"One more thing," I said, still grinning. Kyouya-senpai was now stood a few feet from me as he paused from walking towards the doors. "Why did you give me permission to 'take a breather'?"

Kyouya-senpai's grin faded for a moment as he seemed to be surprised by the question, but it quickly returned and even wider than before. "Didn't I say so yesterday?"

I watched his expression for a moment, my face turning serious.

"That you seem to be happy when you're on the stage," Kyouya-senpai finished.

I simply watched the grin on his face, as I tried to understand exactly what Kyouya-senpai meant behind those blunt words.


End file.
